Three Characteristics and Two Strategies in the Modernization of Ethnic Employment Structure
Achieving common prosperity,ensuring no ethnic group is left behind,is a key objective of the Chinese path to modernization,with the modernization of employment structures among ethnic groups serving as its cornerstone.Leveraging data from the third to seventh national censuses,this study employs ternary plots and Dynamic Time Warping(DTW)to analyze the evolution of ethnic employment structures from 1982 to 2020.The findings reveal three major characteristics:developmental convergence,as the share of employment in the primary sector consistently declined across all ethnic groups without stagnation or reversal;temporal compression,with the time required for ethnic minorities to reduce their primary sector employment share from 80％to 10％estimated at 39 years;and diverse pathways,categorized into four modes:advanced mode,potential mode,balanced mode,and unconventional mode.Furthermore,ethnic groups have achieved a rapid transformation of their labor structures from the primary sector through two critical strategies:interregional labor mobility and localized industrial advancement.The strategy of coordinating dual overarching priorities prioritized the development of the eastern regions,fueling the rapid expansion of the secondary and tertiary sectors and generating substantial labor demand.The Western Development Strategy significantly enhanced infrastructure in ethnic minority regions,establishing an integrated transportation network between the east and west,which facilitated the migration of minority laborers to the eastern regions to engage in higher-productivity industries.In the socialist market economy,despite challenges like weak local productivity and insufficient domestic demand,the growing demand for cultural and tourism services from eastern residents spurred frequent travel to ethnic regions,fostering the expansion of local service industries.This external demand-driven growth,underpinned by China's comprehensive industrial and supply chain networks,enabled ethnic regions to adopt service-led development strategies tailored to their resource endowments,expediting employment structure modernization without over-reliance on local agricultural and industrial bases.This study underscores the profound role of China's institutional strengths and strategic policies in fostering equitable development among ethnic groups,presenting the"Chinese Approach"as a paradigm for achieving shared prosperity in a multi-ethnic nation.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
