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Employment Structures in China from 1990 to 2015: Demographic and Technological Change

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  • Ge, Peng

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Sun, Wenkai

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Zhao, Zhong

    (Renmin University of China)

Abstract

Using national representative samples from population census and mini-census of China, this paper documents important employment dynamics in China from 1990 to 2015. The share of routine manual jobs decreased significant from 57% to 32%; both the share of routine cognitive jobs and the share of not-working increased significantly, from 8% to 19%, and from 16% to 31%, respectively; however, the share of non-routine jobs had no significant change. Our decomposition exercises suggest that the composition effect resulting from change in the composition of population demographics, the propensity effect from change in the probability for people with given demographic characteristics into different employment categories and the interaction effect contribute to 68%, 66% and -34% to the fall in routine manual jobs, respectively. Meanwhile, these effects for the rise in routine cognitive jobs and for the increase in not-working are 16%, 74%, 11%, and 7%, 93%, 0.3%, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Ge, Peng & Sun, Wenkai & Zhao, Zhong, 2021. "Employment Structures in China from 1990 to 2015: Demographic and Technological Change," IZA Discussion Papers 14141, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14141
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    Cited by:

    1. Huaxin Wang-Lu & Octasiano Miguel Valerio Mendoza, 2022. "Job Prospects and Labour Mobility in China," Papers 2207.08282, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    2. Fleisher, Belton & McGuire, William & Su, Yaqin & Zhao, Min Qiang, 2018. "Innovation, Wages, and Polarization in China," MPRA Paper 87105, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Chunbing Xing, 2021. "The changing nature of work and earnings inequality in China," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-105, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Xu, Tao & Zhu, Weiwei, 2021. "Eudemonia and Freedom: A Bibliometric Research on Frontiers and Evolution of Labour and Employment in China," MPRA Paper 112908, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 Mar 2022.
    5. Antonio Martins-Neto & Nanditha Mathew & Pierre Mohnen & Tania Treibich, 2021. "Is There Job Polarization in Developing Economies? A Review and Outlook," CESifo Working Paper Series 9444, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    employment dynamics; routine job; non-routine job; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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