Social Network And Returns In Labor Market

This thesis aims to study the relationship between social networks and personal life encounters in the Chinese cities. So many market transformation studies have examined the impact of formal institutions on the personal life encounters, while the informal institution (social network) as a resource of allocation mechanism of social stratification, has been drawn greater attentions. In the process of social transformation in China, an important feature is to eliminate or reduce the institutional support for individual relaxation, which bring the individual to face the labor market that full of competition and risk. In the course of such changes, the individual’s sense of insecurity and uncontrolled will increase the dependence of the informal institutional support? Dependence on the informal institutional support and skilled manipulation of it how changes the fate of their life? These effects in different labor market characteristics of each stage again showing in what ways? These issues constitute the main objective of this study.By statistical analysis of the2009" social networks and professional experience in China’s major cities "(JSNET2009), we found that:(1) With the establishment and mature of the labor market, market channels gradually become the mainstream way to find a job, social network channels and mixed social network channels gradually increase and occupy an important position. It is not because the labor market is mature and the gradual improvement of market mechanisms to reduce the use of social network resources, individual de-embedded from the state, but then re-embedded in the social network.(2) at different times, the social network resources play a different role:in the two-track period, the social network resources for individual special interests; other times, the social network resources to protect people.(3) As one of the important factors to affect the economic returns in the labor market, the social network resources, to some extent, can reduce the gender and system wage differentials, and the combined effects of human capital and social network can expands the degree of labor market inequality.(4) there is a negative correlation between the use of social network resources and job seeker’s emotional returns. Compared with not using the social network resource for jobs, those who use social network resources is relatively has low job satisfaction. In the workplace, they have to spend more time to build friendships with colleagues, but the time they spend will shorter with the constant development of labor market. This shift may be related with the view of the use of social relations by people.In short, in the process of social transformation, as an an important source of informal supportive system, social networks play an important supporting function in the various stages of labor market in China.