Research On The Influence Of Information Technology Development On Labor Market Polarization

With the rapid development of new-generation information technologies such as 5 G and the Industrial Internet,the demand for labor skills in China’s industrial development has also undergone structural changes.It changes workers’ production methods,occupation choices,and income returns.With the development of information technology,the polarized labor market structure has generally appeared in developed countries,resulting in many social problems such as structural employment friction,technical unemployment,and inequality of income.Although China’s employment structure is still in the form of skill upgrades,it remains to be analyzed whether China’s accelerated information technological application will also result a polarized development of the labor market in the future.This paper sorts out the theoretical development process of labor market polarization,and compares the research status of polarization in developed countries,developing countries and China.A theoretical model of micro-individual occupation choices and income changes under the influence of information technology is constructed,and a general equilibrium analysis of its influence mechanism is carried out.Empirically,this paper uses the data from the CMDS(China Migrants Dynamic Survey)statistics from 2012 to 2018,analyzing the differential impact of urban information technology development on individual occupation choices and income.This part also conducts a micro-individual-level study on whether it brings about the polarization of the labor market structure.The regression results are valid after processing of the endogenous,replacement of sample data,replacement of skill classification,and testing in the macro-level.On this basis,this paper also found the impact of two emerging information technologies,the industrial Internet and the digital economy on the labor market is also in the form of polarization.Furthermore,this paper analyzes the characteristics of heterogeneity among the three different regions in the east,central and west as well as the reasons for the differences and the appropriate industrial development policies.In addition,this paper also analyzes the macrodemand mechanism of information technology-induced labor market polarization,the changing mechanism of skill demand within occupations,and the individual occupational transition mechanism.The research results of this paper find that compared with rountine occupations,the development of urban information technology increases the probability of workers choosing nonroutine cognitive and nonroutine manual occupations,showing the influence of "labor market polarization" in terms of employment.Although income is not in a polarized form,there is still a trend towards polarization over time.Further research finds that compared with middleskilled workers,the development of urban information technology has increased the employment probability of high-skilled and elementary-skilled workers,and also has a polarized employment impact on the skill structure measured by education.Moreover,over time,middle-skilled workers will gradually crowd out the employment opportunities brought by the expansion of nonroutine operational occupations to primary-skilled workers.Regionally,the development of information technology only takes the form of polarization in the eastern and central regions,while in the western region it promotes the development of routine occupations.In terms of mechanism,we found that the mechanism of labor polarization is manifested in the effect of the expansion of nonroutine cognitive workers on the demand for nonroutine manual in terms of demand,and it is manifested in the relative wage levels to attractive the routine workers to change their occupations in the supply side.In view of the possible polarization trend of the current labor market,this paper believes that individual workers should improve their skills and choose nonroutine occupations in cities with high information development level;the government should not only develop high-tech and high-efficiency industries,but also should pay attention to the formation of complementary development of high-level service industries,accept the labor that flows out in the process of optimizing production and supply,and give more development opportunities to low-skilled and medium-skilled labors;the government should make the development of information technology a driving force for the optimization and upgrading of production efficiency and service quality,promote the incremental development of China’s domestic cycle from the supply side.