Employment Polarization In China's Labor Market

Employment is the basic thing in people's life.It is not only related to the happiness of individuals and families,but also to the economic development of countries and regions.Since the 1990s,with the rapid development of information technology and the wave of economic globalization,the labor market in many developed countries has experienced a polarization of skill demand,that is,the demand and the proportion of employment for high-skilled labor and low-skilled labor are increasing,but the demand and the proportion of employment for medium-skilled labor are decreasing.In recent years,China's economy has developed rapidly,and international trade has become more frequent.China's labor market has also shown trend of polarization of employment.This research revolves around the employment polarization phenomenon in China's labor market.On the basis of reasonable measurement,we analyze its economic laws and actual influences from the perspectives of causes and effectsThis paper firstly combs and summarizes relevant literatures at home and abroad from three aspects:the measurement and the trend of development of labor market polarization,the formation of labor market polarization,and economic effects brought about by labor market polarization.Then it introduces three common methods for measuring employment polarization and its specific operation process,and analyzes and compares them.We choose the "job tasks method" which is closest to the concept of employment polarization.Then we use the data from the national census and the national 1%population sample survey to measure the employment structure of China and 301 areas from 2000 to 2015.The results show that although the employment structure of China's labor market has shown an overall upward trend during this period,the upward trend has slowed down or even stagnated after 2010,and the trend of polarization has begun to appear.Moreover,there are obvious polarization of employment in areas with a high degree of informatization,and the two are positively correlatedOn this basis,the paper also uses the subdivided data to measure the employment polarization level of each provincial-level administrative region and municipal-level administrative regions,which is used to deeply study the causes and effects of employment polarization.In the analysis of causes,the focus is on the substitution role of information technology for medium-skilled labor and the complementary role of it for high-skilled labor.A theoretical model consisting of two sectors and three types of labor is constructed to analyze the rapid progress and large-scale application of information technology how to affect the supply and demand of the market of labor force.The results of the model show that local labor markets with greater initial specialization in routine tasks will experience greater degree of employment polarization in the later period of time,and the empirical test proves this.In analyzing the impact of employment polarization on economic growth,this paper uses provincial panel data to carry out three-step regression,tests the mediating effect of innovation activities,and clarifies that the polarization of employment structure to high-end may promote economic growth by promoting innovation activities.In addition,previous studies have paid little attention to the social effects of employment polarization.This paper supplements this aspect,separately studies unemployment and life satisfaction,and points out that employment polarization brings benefits to high-skilled workers But meanwhile,the living conditions of low-and medium-skilled workers have deteriorated.When formulating policies,the government should pay more attention to those facing structural unemployment.