Digital Transformation and Enterprise Labor Employment: Incentivizing or Suppressing ?

Abstract

In the context of accelerated digital economic development, digital transfor-mation has not only become a core driver for organizational restructuring and business model innovation in enterprises, but also profoundly influenced labor market reforms, serving as a crucial approach to achieving stable employment goals. Using the establishment of National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones as a natural experiment, this study employs the difference-in-differences method to demonstrate that these zones significantly enhance corporate em-ployment levels. Mechanism tests reveal that these zones boost employment scale through three pathways: improving production efficiency, reducing op-erational costs, and enhancing business performance. Expanding the research framework to examine how National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones affect productivity, the study finds that such zones improve factor allocation, promote specialized division of labor, and optimize human capital to enhance production efficiency. Heterogeneity tests indicate that the employ-ment-promoting effects are more pronounced in pilot zones with stronger internal controls, those located in Northeast China, northern coastal regions, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, as well as non-technology-intensive enterprises. This research not only deepens our understanding of how National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones empower corporate employment, but also holds significant practical implications for advancing and refining industrial policies aimed at stabilizing employment.