The impact of mobile internet development on firm labor demands in China

As a crucial digital general-purposed technology (DGPT) in the current digital economy era, the rapid development of mobile Internet technology not only promotes the digital upgrading of the economy, but has a profound impact on firm labor demands. Based on microdata from China's listed companies and macrodata from prefecture-level cities, the paper evaluates the effect of mobile Internet development on employment at the firm level. Research shows that there is a roust causal relationship between mobile Internet development and the growth of firm labor demands. Influencing path tests found that mobile Internet can change firm labor demands by affecting its productivity, digital process, production scale and business scope. In terms of changes in employment structure, the paper found that mobile Internet is conducive to promoting the flow of labor to the advanced industrial structure; mobile Internet development significantly increased firm's demands for high-skilled labor and low-level labor, so the technical polarization effect of mobile Internet applications on employment has not been observed. mobile Internet development improved firm labor demands for positions that are highly related to digital applications, but has reduced the labor demands for positions of routine tasks, which shows the bias of mobile Internet technology from the side. The above research provides theoretical and practical reference for us to promote mobile Internet technology innovation and innovative applications to achieve fuller employment and optimize employment structure in the era of digital economy.