Digital Revolution and Employment Choice of Rural Labor Force: Evidence from the Perspective of Digital Skills

Abstract

The practical implementation of the employment promotion effect of the digital economy is closely linked to rural laborers’ digital skills (DS). Therefore, this study uses the Mprobit model to empirically test the impact of DS on rural labor employment choices. The results show that: (1) the acquisition of DS by the rural labor force significantly increases the rate of off-farm employment and entrepreneurship but has no significant effect on farm employment, with work skills having the most significant positive impact on the rural labor force off-farm employment and online business skills having the most significant positive impact on rural labor force entrepreneurship. (2) The mechanism test reveals that DS influences the employment choices of the rural labor force by alleviating the information access constraint and financing constraints faced by rural labor. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that males and rural laborers in rich regions can benefit from entrepreneurship. In contrast, females and low-skilled and rural laborers in middle and poor regions can benefit more from off-farm employment. Our findings provide empirical evidence on effectively cultivating DS to increase the diversity of employment choices for the rural workforce and highlight the importance of improving DS.