Spatial and Career Mobility of China’s Labor Force: Exploiting Innovative Survey Design and Measurement

• In Event: 501 - Section on Asia and Asian America Paper Session. Social Inequalities: Emerging Research on Asia and Asian America

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the spatial and career mobility of Chinese labor population. The paper integrated theories on stratification and social change and exploited the innovative design and measurement of China Labor-force Dynamics Survey to minimize the under-coverage problem of rural-urban migratory experience. Our analysis provides several fresh findings: (1) while household registration (hukou) is the primary stratification order in China, at-birth rural hukou status actually leads to a greater probability of spatial mobility and career advancement than at-birth urban hukou; (2) the stratification by education and gender differentiates rural-origin people, increasing the heterogeneity of urban labor and decreasing the heterogeneity of rural labor; (3) the cohort effect of hukou policy relaxation favors later cohorts over earlier cohorts; (4) there is partial correlation between spatial mobility and career mobility after controlling for stratification factors and birth cohort differences. These findings suggest that the two dimensions of labor mobility are indeed happening jointly in China.

Authors

• Lingxin Hao, Johns Hopkins University

• Yucheng Liang, Sun Yat-sen University, China