Research On Employment Polarization In China

In the 1980 s and 1990 s,the polarization of employment emerged in the United States and Europe,where the employment proportion of medium-skilled labors continued to decline,and the empolyment proportion of high-and low-skilled labors and increased.The results of employment structure analyses based on the educational level and wage income are the same.The decline of the empolyment proportion of medium-skilled labors caused by the polarization of employment is an important reason for the difficulty of employment recovery after the 2008 economic crisis in the United States.For China,there is a shortage of “technical workers” and a widening income gap in the employment market.As a developing country,China's economic development conditions and development stages are very different from those of developed countries such as Europe and the United States.Does China also have employment polarization? Is the employment polarization related to the “technical shortage” and the widening income gap? The mechanism of employment polarization and its process of affecting employment and income inequality are the questions answered in this paper.Existing researches suggest that the polarization of employment polarization in the United States and Europe is mainly due to the skill-biased technological advancement and international trade.In the context of globalization,the employment markets in developed and developing countries are affected by skill-biased technological advancement and international trade,which make the employment proportion of high-skilled labors relatively low-skilled labors rise and wage inequality continue to expand.However,studies have shown that the polarization of employment in China is beginning to emerge.Due to the differences in national conditions between China and developed countries such as Europe and the United States,the mechanism of employment polarization may be different.Therefore,based on the existing research ideas and methods,this paper verifies whether the employment structure of China shows employment polarization characteristics,and analyzes the reasons for the polarization of employment in China.This paper argues that between 2008 and 2017,China experienced the employment polarization.Skill-biased technological advancement,international trade and industrial structural upgrading are the main reasons for employment polarization in China.Specifically,the first chapter verifies the existence of the phenomenon of employment polarization in China.The first chapter first divides the skills from the three levels of education,wages and work tasks,analyzes the employment structure under each skill division,and observes whether employment polarization has appeared in different industries,departments and sub-sectors in some years.Characteristics and analysis of wage inequality from changes in real wages and skill premiums.The second chapter analyzes the mechanism of skill-biased technological advancement affecting employment polarization.The third chapter first analyzes the mechanism of international trade affecting employment polarization,and then analyzes the impact of international trade on China's employment structure based on the characteristics of China's international trade development.The fourth chapter analyzes the mechanism of employment polarization from the perspective of industrial structural upgrading,and analyzes the impact of industrial structural upgrading on China's employment structure from three aspects: employment elasticity,employment deviation and factor input.The last chapter proposes targeted policy recommendations.The conclusions of this paper are as follows:First,China has seen the polarization of employment in 2008-2017.Under the three skill classification criteria of education level,average salary and job task,the Chinese job market showed a slight employment polarization in 2008-2017.The analysis of the changes in skill structure within the industrial sector finds that the agricultural employment structure shows employment upgrading characteristics,and the manufacturing industry shows employment polarization characteristics.Most of the low-tech industries in the service industry shows employment upgrading characteristics,and the high-tech industries shows employment polarization characteristics.Secondly,the skill-biased technological advancement has caused the polarization of employment in China through routinization hypothesis.Skill-biased technological advancement complements the skilled labors and substitutes the non-skilled labors.With the revolutionary development of technology,technological advancement can complete the repetitive work of medium-skilled labors at a lower cost,thus replacing the medium-skilled labors.For China,as new technologies are applied and productivity is increasing,the demand for medium-skilled labor in Chinese companies is declining.In addition,skill-biased technological advances have widened the productivity gap between high-skilled labor and low-skilled labor,and the skill premium has continued to rise.Third,the introduction of technology through international trade has caused China's skill-biased technological advancement,which in turn has affected the employment proportion of various types of skills.China uses foreign exchange earned from the export of labor-intensive products to purchase advanced foreign technology.The application of these technologies has caused China's skill-biased technological advancement.In addition,the increasing proportion of software services in offshore outsourcing has increased China's demand for highly skilled labors.Fourth,the excessive capital investment in the process of upgrading the industrial structure has caused the employment of practitioners in the middle-tech industries to decline.On the one hand,the employment elasticity of the manufacturing industry is relatively low,the employment structure of the medium-tech industries in the manufacturing industry is the most deviated,and the manufacturing industry has the least absorption capacity and the driving effect;on the other hand,while the manufacturing capital investment is growing rapidly,employment growth is slowing.Therefore,in the process of upgrading the industrial structure from labor-intensive industries to capital-intensive industries,rapidly rising capital investment has played a substitution role for practitioners in the middle-tech industries and promoted the formation of employment polarization.To reduce the impact of employment polarization on China's labor market,we should start from the following five aspects: First,accelerating the improvement of the quality of higher education and the quality of vocational education and training,improving the overall high,medium and low-skilled labors productivity,and expanding the supply of various types of skills;Second,We will use the domestic market demand to actively introduce foreign advanced technology and talents to accelerate the progress of China's technological progress;Third,accelerating the upgrading of industrial structure,optimizing the labor structure,and allowing all kinds of skilled labor to be deployed in industries with different productivity;Fourth,accelerating the reform of the household registration system,and eliminating the restrictions on the free flow of various skills among different departments and regions;Fifth,improving the social security system and reducing the wage gap between the skills and non-skilled labors through transfer payment,taxation and welfare systems.