Investigating The Influence Of Fertility On Employment Among Female Migrant Workers

As a distinctive subset of the female population,female migrant workers possess the dual attributes of "feminine" and "migrant",which impose additional costs and constraints on their fertility and employment.This,in turn,exacerbates the volatility of their postnatal employment,resulting in varying degrees of female human resource wastage and obstructing women’s career progression.Against the backdrop of promoting high-quality employment and the "three-child" policy,the need to address the issue of improving the employment quality and fertility levels of female migrant workers is more pressing than ever.Drawing on the data from the 2018 and 2014 National Dynamic Monitoring Surveys of Migrant Population,this paper depicts the current state and alterations in the fundamental characteristics,fertility features,and employment traits of female migrant workers.Moreover,the Logit model,IV-Probit model,and quantile regression are employed to probe the impact and magnitude of female migrant workers’ fertility on their labor force participation and wage income.Furthermore,we delve deeper into the correlation between these two factors from the perspective of household registration.Regarding the influence of fertility on labor force participation,it is evident that fertility exerts a pronounced negative effect on the probability of female migrant workers engaging in labor.Regression analysis reveals that for each unit increase in the number of births,the probability of female migrant workers participating in labor diminishes on average by a substantial 9.1%.Notably,the adverse impact of having two offspring is particularly profound.Furthermore,an examination of household registration status in tandem indicates that fertility significantly dampens the probability of labor force participation among female migrant workers of various registration statuses,with a more substantial impact observed among those with urban registration.Turning to the impact of fertility on wage income levels,it is apparent that for each unit increase in the number of births,the wage income levels of female migrant workers decline by a noteworthy 1.08%to 4.98%.Particularly salient is the significant negative effect of having two or more children on the wage income levels of middle-and low-income earners,with the most deleterious consequences observed among low-income earners.Further analysis based on household registration status evinces that,at the same income percentile,fertility’s impact on the wage income levels of female migrant workers with urban registration is more substantial.This article’s innovations can be categorized into three main areas.Firstly,through a comparative analysis of longitudinal data from 2014 and 2018,the descriptive statistical analysis highlights the dynamic changes of the female migrant population.Secondly,by considering the number of births among female migrant workers,this study provides a fresh perspective for research on female employment,and furnishes a reference for selecting indicators in regression analysis.Thirdly,anchored in the contemporary backdrop of promoting high-quality employment and long-term balanced population development,this research is endowed with greater practical significance.Nonetheless,some limitations of this study exist.Firstly,the empirical analysis is solely based on cross-sectional data from 2018,thus neglecting the temporal dimension.Secondly,the absence of gender comparative analysis has compromised the comprehensiveness of the research findings.