Abstract: Taking advantage of both aggregated data from the two rounds of Economic Census conducted in 2004 and 2008 respectively, the empirical study shows that the exporting does help China to increase job opportunities, although the relative importance of export-oriented sectors in generating employment has been decreasing from 2004 to 2008. Meanwhile, the role of domestic demand has been more active in creating jobs. With the labor market transitions in recent years, labor- intensive sectors in China have been challenged with growing labor costs. The comparisons between the two rounds of census data indicate that the manufacturing sectors have become more capital intensive over time, which partly explains why the relative importance of trade-intensive sectors in job creation has declined. Using the firm survey data, this paper also analyzes the quality of jobs associated with trade, which indicates that the job quality in export oriented sectors is not ideal.

（ in Reports on China’s Population and Labor (No.13)，Chapter 12 ，2012 ）