Internet use and inverted U-shaped employment polarization in tourism occupations

Abstract

The existing literature has not fully explored the polarization of tourism employment and the causes of this polarization, and this article makes contributions to addressing this issue. Using data on tourism-related occupations from the China General Social Survey , the article finds that current tourism employment is polarized in an inverted “U” shape, with the top of the polarization occurring in the middle-skilled occupational area. This differs significantly from the existing literature, which concludes that there is a “U” shaped employment polarization. The article finds that workers’ use of the Internet is the main cause of the inverted U-shaped polarization of tourism employment. This is reflected in the relatively low proportion of employment in the low-skilled and high-skilled occupational groups and the relatively high and stable proportion of employment in the middle-skilled occupational groups. However, dynamically, the employment of low-skilled groups tends to increase, and high-employment groups tend to decrease. These results reveal new findings in the tourism labor market and have important implications for current research on tourism employment.