Study On The Effect Of Foreign Investment On Employment In China

The effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on employment should be paid more attention to, with the abundant use of FDI and the more serious employment problem in China. Up to the end of 2004, the number of employed persons in foreign-invested enterprises had risen to 1033 million, about 4% of the number of employed persons in urban areas. Although the share is small, it grows very quickly, which makes it contribute much to the total employment's growth. Furthermore, the effect of FDI on employment is very complex. Not only can FDI have an affect on the quantity of employment, but also has something to do with the structure and quality of employment. From this aspect, it needs studying further.In this paper, the employment effect of FDI is treated as a system. Both the qualitative and quantitative methods and the normative and empirical analysis are applied to study on the impact of FDI on the quantity, structure and quality of employment. The paper is structured as follows. First, a review, along with a comment is made on the existing literature on FDI and employment. Then a deep study on the employment effect of FDI is divided into three parts: (1) the impact of FDI on the quantity of employment; (2) the impact of FDI on the structure of employment; (3) the impact of FDI on the quality of employment. In what follows, a research is made on the factors that influence the employment effect of FDI. At last, some suggestions are put up.The conclusions show that FDI had a great contribution to the total number of employed persons. But it also changed the distribution of employment by industries and regions. It improved the quality of employment by the spillover effect. It influenced the education received by the labor force.