Digital Inclusion or Digital Exclusion? Digital Skills and Employment Quality Among Older Migrant Workers: Evidence from China

Against the backdrop of rapid advances in digital technologies and widespread adoption, digital skills are significantly associated with higher employment quality for migrant workers, particularly for the employment prospects and continued labor market participation of older migrant workers and their sustainable employability in an increasingly digitalized labor market. This study employs a two-way fixed effects model with province and year fixed effects to empirically examine the impact of digital skills on employment quality and its underlying mechanisms from an information acquisition perspective. Based on three waves of panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2018, 2020, and 2022, the analysis focuses on migrant workers aged 50 and above. The findings reveal the following: (1) Digital skills are positively and significantly associated with employment quality among older migrant workers, with entertainment, work-related, and learning skills demonstrating particularly pronounced effects. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates a statistically significant indirect association of digital skills with employment quality, with significant differences observed across different dimensions of digital skills. (3) Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that digital skills have a more pronounced effect on improving employment quality among older migrant workers with higher education levels, those in east regions, and those with employment in another city. Based on these findings, the following policy recommendations are proposed: Governments should coordinate efforts to extend digital infrastructure to underserved areas and provide targeted and employment-oriented digital skills training to lower technological barriers. Employment service platforms should be optimized to facilitate the matching of workers with relevant employment information and job opportunities and offer age-friendly course offerings, thereby bridging the digital age gap. Regionalized, tiered precision intervention strategies should be implemented to maximize the marginal benefits of digital skills in promoting high-quality employment for older migrant workers, fostering more inclusive and sustainable labor market development.