Workers’Fear of Unemployment under the Background of“Machines Replacing Humans”:Evidence from Matched“Employer-Employee”Survey Data for Guangdong’s Manufacturing Industry

FAN Chang-yu DENG Yun-xue

社会学评论 ›› 2022, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (2) : 67-87.

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ISSN 2095-5154 CN 10-1098/C
PDF(1549 KB)
社会学评论 ›› 2022, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (2) : 67-87.

Workers’Fear of Unemployment under the Background of“Machines Replacing Humans”:Evidence from Matched“Employer-Employee”Survey Data for Guangdong’s Manufacturing Industry

  • FAN Chang-yu,DENG Yun-xue
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Abstract

“Machines replacing humans”has become an important tendency of the Chinese manufacturing industry, which has increased workers’risk of technological unemployment. However, there is a lack of study on technological unemployment from the viewpoint of workers. This article attempts to explore workers’fear of unemployment from a social psychological perspective. Based on an employer-employee survey data for Guangdong province in 2018, the article finds that about 30% of workers fear of being replaced by automation technologies, and there is no remarkable difference among workers from different sub-industries. Using the substitutability of work as a key independent variable,the study shows the regression result that workers whose work can be easily substituted by automated equipment are more afraid of technological unemployment, and they are more likely to be impacted by their perceptions of work substitution, which tend to amplify their fear. Regarding human capital, workers who received fewer years of education are more likely to fear technological unemployment. Additionally, workers’fear of unemployment presents as an N curve as their seniority grows. In conclusion, this article suggests intervention strategies based on the above analysis.

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FAN Chang-yu DENG Yun-xue. Workers’Fear of Unemployment under the Background of“Machines Replacing Humans”:Evidence from Matched“Employer-Employee”Survey Data for Guangdong’s Manufacturing Industry[J]. Sociological Review of China, 2022, 10(2): 67-87
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