The Impact of the Digital Economy on Employment Scale in the Yangtze River Delta Region

Employment is the greatest livelihood and the most basic support for economic development. In recent years, the scale and scope of digital economy has expanded dramatically, triggering revolutionary changes in employment patterns. Especially in the Yangtze River Delta region. This paper is based on panel data of 41 prefecture level cities in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2011 to 2021. Firstly, the fixed-effects regression model is used to empirically analyze the impact of the digital economy on the employment scale in the YRD region, and the intermediary mechanism model is further used to verify the role of industrial structure upgrading in the digital economy's impact on the employment scale. The study finds that: The digital economy has significantly expanded the employment scale in the YRD region, indicating that the employment creation effect is greater than the employment substitution effect. In the heterogeneity analysis, this impact is more significant in the central cities of the YRD region, areas with higher levels of urbanization and well-developed digital infrastructures. The digital economy can promote the optimization and upgrading of the employment market in the YRD region through the upgrading of the industrial structure, expanding the scale of employment, optimizing the employment structure. Â Â