Digital economy, aging of the labor force, and employment transformation of migrant workers: Evidence from China

Migrant workers are the key group of employment work. Promoting the employment transformation of migrant workers under the background of the booming digital economy and the deepening aging degree is related to the overall stability of employment, but also to rural revitalization and common prosperity. This paper uses five waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2012 to 2020 to explore the impact of the aging of the labor force on the employment transformation of migrant workers using multiple Logit regression models, and systematically and deeply explores the role of the digital economy in this process and its mechanism. The main findings of this study are as follows: firstly, the aging of the labor force significantly inhibits the employment transformation of migrant workers, which is mainly reflected in the inhibition of their transformation from traditional industries to new economy industries. Secondly, the digital economy significantly promotes the employment transformation of migrant workers and effectively alleviates the inhibitory effect of the aging of the labor force on the employment transformation of migrant workers. And it mainly plays its role by promoting the industrial structure upgrading, and the social capital and human capital accumulation of migrant workers. Thirdly, the mitigation effect of the digital economy is more effective among high-skilled migrant workers, young and middle-aged migrant workers, rural migrant workers, as well as migrant workers in eastern cities, large-sized cities, and cities with high digital development levels. Based on the above research conclusions, this article proposes relevant policy recommendations for actively responding to the aging of the labor force and fully leveraging the mitigating effects of the digital economy.