Labor Market Segmentation, Job Mobility and the Two-track Model of Chinese Urban Workers’ Acquisition of Economic Status

Abstract

使用“2009年中国社会网络与职业经历调查” (JSNET2009) 广州、上海、厦门、 济南和西安五城市数据, 检验了改革以后影响中国城市劳动者职业流动模式以及经济 地位获得的因素。研究结果表明, 高学历劳动者与低学历劳动者群体处于两个分割的 劳动力市场中, 他们的经济地位获得路径完全不同。对于低学历劳动者, 职业流动是 提升他们收入水平的最重要因素, 而人力资本因素 (受教育年限和工作经验) 对他们 的收入没有影响。高学历劳动者的情况刚好相反, 职业流动对收入获得没有任何作 用, 影响他们收入分层的最重要因素是人力资本。本研究揭示了转型期中国城市地区 不同劳动力市场劳动者的经济地位获得的二元路径模式。

关键词: 劳动力市场分割 职业流动 收入分层 人力资本回报

Using data from the “Survey of Social Networks and Occupational Experience in Chinese Cities in 2009” on five cities (Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xiamen, Jinan and Xi’an), this paper examines factors influencing Chinese urban workers’ patterns of job mobility and acquisition of economic status in the post-reform era. The results show that workers with high educational levels and those with low educational levels occupy different segments of the labor market and have completely different paths to economic status acquisition. In the case of workers with a low educational level, job mobility is the most important factor boosting income levels, while human capital variables (years of schooling and work experience) have no effect on income. By contrast, job mobility has no effect on the income of workers with a high educational level, whose income stratification is most affected by their human capital. This research reveals the two-track model of urban workers’ acquisition of economic status in different urban labor markets in transitional China.

Keywords:

• labor market segmentation
• job mobility
• income stratification
• returns to human capital

Notes

¹Gary S. Becker, Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education; Jacob Mincer, Schooling, Experience, and Earnings.

²Gary S. Becker, “Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis,” pp. 9-49; Donald O. Parsons, “Specific Human Capital: An Application to Quit Rates and Layoff Rates,” pp.1120-1143; Dale T. Mortensen, “Specific Capital and Labor Turnover,” pp. 572-586.

³Aage B. Sorensen and Arne L. Kalleberg, “An Outline of a Theory of the Matching of Persons to Jobs,” pp. 438-446.

⁴Xiaogang Wu and Yu Xie, “Does the Market Pay Off? Earnings Returns to Education in Urban China,” pp. 425-442; Wu Xiaogang, “Voluntary and Non-voluntary Occupational Mobility and Income Inequality in Chinese Cities, 1993-2000.”

⁵Yang Cao and Chiung-Yin Hu, “Gender and Job Mobility in Post-socialist China: A Longitudinal Study of Job Changes in Six Coastal Cities,” pp. 1535-1560.

⁶M. J. Piore, “The Dual Labor Market: Theory and Implications,” pp. 435-438; Glen G. Cain, “The Challenge of Segmented Labor Market Theories to Orthodox Theory: A Survey,” pp. 1215-1257.

⁷M.J. Piore, “The Dual Labor Market: Theory and Implications,” pp. 435-438.

⁸Paul Taubman and Michael L. Wachter, “Segmented Labor Markets,” pp. 1183-1217.

⁹William T. Dickens and Kevin Lang, “A Test of Dual Labor Market Theory,” pp. 508-523.

¹⁰Oliver E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies.

¹¹Cai Fang, Du Yang and Wang Meiyan, “The System of Household Registration and Labor Market Protection;” Li Qiang, “The Dual Labor Market and Elites at the Bottom of Society in Chinese Cities;” Xiaowei Zang, “Labor Market Segmentation and Income Inequality in Urban China,” pp.27-44; Wang Fuqin, “Human Capital, Labor Market Segmentation and Income Distribution;” Zhang Zhanxin, “Industrial Segmentation of the Labor Market and Working Population Mobility.”

¹²Xiaowei Zang, “Labor Market Segmentation and Income Inequality in Urban China,” pp.27-44; Li Shi and Ding Sai, “Long-term Trends in the Rate of Return to Education in Urban Areas in China;” Wang Fuqin, “Human Capital, Labor Market Segmentation and Income Distribution.”

¹³Paul Taubman and Michael L. Wachter, “Segmented Labor Markets,” pp. 1183-1217; Arne L. Kalleberg and Aage B. Sorensen, “The Sociology of Labor Markets,” pp. 351-379.

¹⁴For a roundup of literature on the classification of labor market types, see the following: Lynne G. Zucker and Carolyn Rosenstein, “Taxonomies of Institutional Structure: the Dual Economy Reconsidered,” pp. 869-884; Randy D. Hodson and Robert Kaufman, “Economic Dualism: A Critical Review,” pp. 727-739; Arthur Sakamoto and Meichu Chen, “Inequality and Attainment in a Dual Labor Market,” pp. 295-308.

¹⁵Li Yi, The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification.

¹⁶Wu Xiaogang, “Economic Transformation, Broadening Tertiary Recruitment and Educational Inequality in China, 1990-2000”; Li Chunling, “Recruiting More University Students and Unequal Educational Opportunities.”

¹⁷Andrew G. Walder, Bobai Li and Donald J. Treiman, “Politics and Life Chances in a State Socialist Regime: Dual Career Paths into the Urban Chinese Elite, 1949 to 1996,” pp.191-209.

¹⁸The figures were obtained by the author directly from calculations based on micro-data from the 1990 population census (1%) and the 2000 population census (0.1%).

¹⁹It needs to be pointed out that the job mobility discussed in this study refers to changing one’s working unit (or employer) and does not include shifting post or occupation in the same working unit.

²⁰Based on the criteria for defining the dual labor market, the primary labor market here (and in the following paragraphs) represents the group of workers with a high educational level (tertiary education, i.e., dazhuan or above) and the secondary labor market represents the group of workers with a low educational level (below tertiary education).

²¹Li Peilin and Zhang Yi, “Going Out of the Shadow of Adverse Circumstances: A Study of ‘Human Capital Failure’ in the Reemployment of Laid-off Workers.”

²²Data collection in these cities was financed and carried out respectively by the Institute of Social Science Surveys of Sun Yat-sen University, the Department of Sociology of Shanghai University, the Department of Sociology of Xiamen University, the Department of Sociology of Shandong University and the Institute for Empirical Social Science Research of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

²³For instance, there may be some unobserved variables that simultaneously influence both independent (human capital and job mobility) and dependent variables and their absence may lead to deviations in the estimated values of independent variables.

²⁴Due to limitations of space, this article omits all the tables and figures of the regression model and descriptive and statistical tables of the variables. Interested readers may refer to the Chinese version of this article (published in Zhongguo Shehui Kexue [中国社会科学], 2011, no. 1) or contact the author ([email protected]).

²⁵Li Peilin and Zhang Yi, “Going Out of the Shadow of Adverse Circumstances: A Study of ‘Human Capital Failure’ in the Reemployment of Laid-off Workers.”