Research On The Occupational Status Attainment Of Urban Informal Employees

The main purpose of this study focus on the mechanism and results of informal employers' occupational status attainment under the background of the changes of urban labor market in the past 40 years after the reform and opening in China.China's labor market is undergoing a changing process,and it essentially points to the transformation of labor force,which means that urban informal employers become the main force of the labor market.The openness of occupational status attainment is the main way to examine social equity,the scale of informal employers and the status changing in the labor market which is an important phenomenon to observe the change of social stratification and social structure.Informal employees are not simply excluded and marginalized passive groups,but also active actors to participate in such an open and mobile era.Therefore,based on the national survey data of China Labor-force Dynamic Survey(CLDS)in 2014,this study introduced market segmentation theory to observe the theme of “occupational attainment” and following the logic of “structureaction”,the distinction between two types of informal employees-informal employees and self-employed person under the restriction of labor market structure,as well as putting them in a comparative study with regular employees,and study the mechanism and path of occupational status attainment.The research focuses on four key issues: Firstly,what are the characteristics of the segmentation caused by the structural changes of the urban labor market in China?Secondly,what are the differences in occupational status between informal and formal employees? Does it constitute a new division of the labor market? Thirdly,what factors affect the occupational status attainment and mobility of informal employees? What are the differences in the use of dynamic resources among different types of informal employees? Fourthly,under the structural constraints of labor force segmentation,are informal employees more open to occupational status attainment than formal employees? Do they benefit from the transformation of the labor market? If so,how will we view the positive role of this group and the resulting changes in identity,profession and system? The systematic answers to the above questions constitute the basic analysis framework and research content for this study to discuss the occupational status of urban informal employees.Through a systematic study of the occupational status attainment of urban informal employees,this paper draws the following main conclusions: Firstly,the changes in China's labor market have made urban informal employees the dominant force in the urban labor market and become an important force in the division of China's labor market.Secondly,although the segmentation brings significantly different of occupational status between the informal employers and the formal employers,mainly in terms of working conditions,labor status and occupational status(occupational class,industry status,unit status,income status),the occupational status of the informal employers,compared with the father's or the first job,is shown in the directional uplift,the total mobility rate and circulatory mobility rate are also higher than those of formal employment.At different stages of the reform,the trend of the promotion of professional status is obvious.Thirdly,endowment factors(individual characteristics and family background factors)and self-inducing factors(human capital and social network factors)have significant effects on different types of informal employees(informal employees and self-employed persons)to obtain occupational status within the separated informal employees.However,the self-inducing factors have more positive impact.And with the advance of reform,the role of pre-endowed factors is weakening,and the positive role of self-induced factors is increasing.Fourthly,the initiative of informal employers under the division makes them become an important force in shaping the labor market,increasing the mobility and openness of the labor market,but it is undeniable that there are objective and subjective differences and differentiation in their status with formal employers.Based on the findings above,this study reinterprets the multiple meanings of“urban informal employers” under the three roles of the state,job change and globalization;explores the status and role change of “informal employers” and its underlying institutional logic and consequences;and reflects on the multiple roles of education,which is the most important in self-induced factors.The expansion of informal employers is not only a reconstruction of the labor market,but also a reflection of changes in social order and social structure.Its “informal” nature will also reshape people's daily life,and put forward higher requirements for urban development and governance.Informal employment also does not mean “Three D”(dirty,dangerous and demeaning),it constructs another possible imagination of our understanding of the multiple identities of work and occupation in the future.