HOW THE DIGITAL ECONOMY SHAPES EMPLOYMENT: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE ALLOCATION

Abstract

In the rapid rise of the digital economy era, employment patterns and structures are undergoing profound changes. As a core component of human capital, education plays a vital role in shaping workers’ skills and knowledge. This research aims to examine the impact of digital economy development on overall employment levels and to investigate the mediating role of educational resource allocation in the relationship between the digital economy and employment outcomes in China. Using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2022, this study constructs a Digital Economy Index through principal component analysis and employs a fixed effects model to examine the impact of digital economy development on employment. The results show that digital economy development significantly promotes employment expansion and advances employment structure upgrading by increasing the share of highly educated workers in total employment. Educational resource allocation plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between digital economy development and employment outcomes. Specifically, higher education investment contributes to the expansion of employment scale, while improvements in digital literacy facilitate the upgrading of the employment structure. These findings suggest the need to accelerate employment structure adjustments, improve labor quality, and implement regionally tailored strategies to sustain the employment effects of the digital economy.