A Study On The Effect Of Employment Quality On Migrant Workers’ Subjective Well-being

Happiness is the eternal pursuit of people.Since China’s economic development has shifted from the stage of high-speed growth to the stage of high-quality development,a higher quality of life rather than economic aspirations has become the main goal people pursue,and livelihood issues have become the focus of discussion in all walks of life.However,migrant workers,as a special group emerging from social changes in China,still face problems of low income,high labor intensity,poor stability,narrow upward employment channels and lack of social security due to many historical and practical factors,which have become an important factor threatening the physical and mental health of this group.In addition,the lower quality of employment will produce a sense of relative deprivation,thus forming a low class identity mentality of being abandoned by the society,which also makes it difficult to experience happiness.Therefore,the relationship between employment quality and happiness of migrant workers should be worthy of attention.Accordingly,this paper attempts to investigate the impact of employment quality and the subjective well-being of migrant workers based on relevant theories and also using data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)sponsored by the China Social Science Survey Center of Peking University.Based on this,this paper delves into the influence of employment quality on migrant workers’ subjective well-being and the role of class identity in this influence,based on relevant theories such as hierarchy of needs and social comparison.Firstly,this paper compares the theories and literature on employment quality,class identity and subjective well-being at home and abroad.Second,based on the existing studies and results,the connotations of migrant workers,employment quality,subjective well-being,and class identity are defined.Once again,we analyzed the existing literature with related theories,constructed an empirical analysis framework of employment quality,class identity and subjective well-being of migrant workers,and proposed corresponding hypotheses.Finally,the direct effects of employment quality and its dimensions on migrant workers’ subjective well-being are verified using ordered logit regression and OLS regression;the two-stage least squares(2SLS)method with instrumental variables and the propensity score matching(PSM)method dealing with self-selection bias are used to test the robustness of the working hours and social security dimensions of employment quality,respectively;the mediating effect test procedure is used to test the The mediating effect of class recognition and its regional heterogeneity were tested.The results show that(1)employment quality has a direct and significant positive effect on migrant workers’ subjective well-being.Among the four specific dimensions of employment quality,the effects of working hours,social security and employment stability on migrant workers’ happiness are significant,but the effects of job income dimension are not significant.(2)Class identity plays a mediating role in the influence of employment quality on migrant workers’ subjective well-being,i.e.,employment quality indirectly influences migrant workers’ subjective well-being through class identity.(3)There is significant regional heterogeneity in the mediating effect of class identity.For the central and western regions,employment quality affects migrant workers’ subjective well-being through class identity,but this mechanism does not exist in the eastern regions.Based on the above findings,this paper proposes policy suggestions to improve the subjective well-being of migrant workers in terms of employment quality and class identity,respectively.