OFFSHORING AND EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA
OFFSHORING AND EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses the change (1995-2009) and its reasons (Berman Decomposition 1993) of employment structure in China's industrial sectors. Then we test the impact of offshoring on the employment structure based on China’s panel data as a whole and by sector. The conclusion shows that China's overall employment structure in industrial sectors has been improving. The increase of skilled labour in the technology-intensive sectors obviously optimizes overall employment structure, while labour/resource-intensive and primary production sectors are both lag behind. Comparing with inter-industry change, labour-saving technology progress or rise in intra-industry productivity should be the main drivers of employment structure optimization. Significant sector differences in the impact of material offshoring and narrow material offshoring on employment structure exist, and service offshoring appears to promotes employment structure overall. Accordingly, we propose policy suggestions about the development of China's employment market in response to the new international division of labour.

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