The Influence of Industrial Digitalization on the Quality Structure of the Labor Force: A Panel Threshold Model Based on Industrial Structure Upgrading

Abstract

The rapid development of China’s digital economy has promoted industrial structure upgrading and further affected the quality structure of the labor force across industries. This study conducts a theoretical derivation by building a task-based theoretical model and uses panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2020 to conduct empirical research on the relationship between industrial digitalization, industrial structure upgrading, and structural changes in labor quality. The study results show that industrial digitalization and industrial structure upgrade affect changes in the quality structure of China’s industrial labor. The industrial structure upgrading index plays a mediating role in influencing industrial digitalization on the educational structure of labor employment. When industrial structure upgrading is considered as the threshold variable, the impact of industrial digitalization on the employment and educational structure of different labor forces in China’s industries has diverse threshold characteristics. In the process of digital industrial development, China needs to focus on protecting labor with secondary education at different stages of digital development and accelerate the development of a skilled labor force to drive the high-quality development of China’s industrial economy.