| Employment is the guarantee for the survival,and also is the development of mankind and the foundation of social equality,harmony and stability.High-quality employment can improve the quality of life and promote the all-round development of people.As a large country with a population of 1.4 billion,China has achieved great success in promoting economic prosperity and solving the employment problem.Especially since the reform and opening up,China has survived the wave of educated youth returning home,the wave of layoffs of state-owned enterprises,and the impact of the Asian financial crisis,European debt and subprime mortgage crisis and etc.Since the 2008 financial crisis,the global economy has been sluggish.However,the unemployment rate of the United States,Europe countries has repeatedly exceeded historical lows,and inflation has continued to be low;China’s economic growth has shifted but the unemployment rate has remained stable or even slightly decline,basically close to full employment.This seems to be inconsistent with the traditional belief in the synchronization of employment and economic growth.Though employment is induced by economic output,the relationship between the two are not static equilibrium in different times and social systems.In the face of globalization,intelligence and aging,industrial development and technological advancement have undergone fundamental changes in employment demand.The severe and complex international political and economic situation,as well as the ongoing domestic reform and development have brought many uncertainties to the labor market.China’s employment structural contradictions are still prominent,and various complex issues such as short-term labor demand shortages and long-term labor supply shortages are intertwined.The research on the relationship in western mainstream economic theory mainly focuses on the optimal allocation of resources under the equilibrium ideology,searching for the "imbalance" reasons to eliminate it so as to achieve full employment.However,these factors or even equilibrium results are the static appearance of the economic system,which cannot reflect the dynamic nature of economic operation and the real cause of unemployment under contradictory movements.Moreover,the implicit assumption of these classic theories is a relatively complete market economy environment under Western values,which is inconsistent with the orientation of China in the primary stage of socialism and the reality of the socialist market economy.Therefore,we need find a new way to explain China’s historic achievements and solve the current employment pressure.The relationship between economic growth and employment needs to be understood in the operational mechanism of the economic system.Adam smith,the ancestor of modern economics,put forward the role of division of labor in "The Wealth of Nations" : "The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour,and the greater part of the skill,dexterity,and judgment with which it is anywhere directed,or applied,seem to have been the effects of the division of labour." The essence of the division of labor is social labor,which reflects the distribution of different workers in different forms of production,and to flows the distribution of their labor objects(means of production)in various sectors.Compared with natural division of labor,the carrier of social division of labor in a market economy is employment.Marx believes that the self-evolution of social division of labor has promoted the development of social productive forces and promoted the economic progress of human society,but also has been the cause of unemployment.With its continuous evolving movement,the "quantity" and "quality" of employment,as well as the relationship with economic growth have all changed.Moreover,it needs to be understood from the perspective of global influence and historical development.The unprecedented growth of global market scope,market size and productivity has promoted the deepening of labor division,and the upgrading of jobs has become more frequent.China’s 40 years reform and opening up are also a process of accelerating the evolution of the division of labor,which has benefited greatly from the specialization and internationalization.The phenomenon of "global value chain division of labor","machine substitution","gig economy" can be seen as the result of social division of labor moving towards a more complex and advanced stage.Through a systematic review of Western employment theories and a deep understanding of China’s employment issues,it is believed that the division of labor is the bridge between economic output and employment,and also is the key to increasing returns and the "quantity" and "quality" of employment.In the new era,this paper adheres to and develops the Marxist classic division of labor theory,with integrating self-organization and dissipative structure theories into it.First,the evolving division of labor promotes the orderly development of the economic system under the open system,and economic growth and employment present a nonlinear relationship under the division and cooperation of labor.Second,the dynamic mechanism is expounded from the depth and breadth of the division of labor,and the importance of self-organization and the necessity of hetero-organization.Third,by analyzing interreaction between division of labor,innovation,and agglomeration,it is derived that the combination of spatial agglomeration,innovation spillover,and cooperation play a common role in the spatial evolution of urban clusters.Then,the paper proposes the evolution direction and new development stage of division of labor,that is,from a linear assembly line,a three-dimensional global value chain to a multi-dimensional platform division of labor,back to the essence of labor time division.Next,it is more specifically applied to the interpretation of China’s history achievements and the exploration of practical problems: focusing on clarifying the reasons for structural unemployment and personal employment lock-in;grasping hidden unemployment,urban rise and fall and other historical events to analyze typical phenomena such as laid-off workers and migrant workers,as well as the government’s countermeasures and theirs effects;researching on the profound impact on economic and employment development from hot spots of technological progress,offshore production,de-industrialization,and epidemic impact.From the historical perspectives,the paper emphasizes the role of the government in the evolution of the division of labor,which is needed to avoid the lock-in or the weakening of the division of labor,to stay away from the middle-income trap and substantial to fictitious economy.At last,the paper tests the employment Theil index at different stages of division of labor,and uses panel data of 282 cities in China to illustrate urban output under different division of labor systems has different quantitative relationship with employment.The evolution of division of labor is a dynamic process of effective resources utilization and industrial transformation and upgrading.It is also a process of accumulation and promotion of human resources and the transformation of innovative capabilities.At present,China’s deep-rooted problem lies in structural unemployment,and the main aspect of the contradiction is that the evolution speed of labor force can not keep up with the evolution speed of division of labor.The premise and destination of high-quality economic development is high-quality employment.A good choice is to better play the role of hetero-organization,so as to grasp the evolution direction,reduce transaction costs,and promote cooperation,and then to accelerate the self-organization evolution of the division of labor.In the process of improving labor productivity and labor specialization,more and more jobs are provided through roundabout production and innovative demand,and the knowledge accumulation and income level of workers are improved simultaneously.Keep up with and even lead the evolution of global division of labor express,forming sustainable economic growth and employment development. |
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