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Back to Cheap Labour? Increasing Employment and Wage Disparities in Contemporary China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2022

Yiran Xia ,
Dimitris Friesen ,
Nourya Cohen ,
Caijie Lu  and
Scott Rozelle
Yiran Xia*
Affiliation:
School of Business, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
Dimitris Friesen
Affiliation:
Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, USA
Nourya Cohen
Affiliation:
Stanford University, Stanford, USA
Caijie Lu
Affiliation:
School of Business, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
Scott Rozelle
Affiliation:
Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, USA
*
Corresponding author: Yiran Xia, email: xiayiran@wzu.edu.cn
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Abstract

After nearly two decades of rising wages for those in the unskilled sectors of China's economy, in the mid-2010s employment and wages in China began to experience new polarizing trends. Using data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, this paper examines trends in multiple sectors and subeconomies of China, revealing the substantial rise of employment in informal, low-skilled services as well as the steady decline of wage growth in the informal subeconomy. At the same time, we find that although employment growth in the formal subeconomy is relatively moderate, wage growth in high-skilled services is steadily rising. These two trends pose a challenge for China, presenting a new and uncertain period of economic change.

摘要

摘要

从 2010 年代中期开始，中国经济中非技术性部门的工资在经历了近 20 年的上涨之后，就业和工资开始出现新的两极分化趋势。本论文使用中国国家统计局的数据，考察了中国多个部门和子经济体的就业和工资趋势，结果发现非正规部门中的低技能服务业就业规模大幅增长，而非正规部门的工资增长却出现稳步下降。与此同时，我们发现，尽管正规经济体的就业增长相对温和，但高技能服务业的工资增长却在稳步上升。工资和就业在不同部门间出现的这两种截然不同的分化趋势给中国未来经济带来了挑战，呈现出一个新的、不确定的经济变化时期。

Keywords

polarizationemploymentwagesdivergencetrendsChina极化就业工资分化趋势中国
Type
Research Report
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 253 , March 2023 , pp. 231 - 249
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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