【Abstract】Conceptual definition of an employment includes dimensions beyond the status of a static employed or unemployed dichotomy. Since such a dichotomous measurement of the employment, we are unable to observe structural and qualitative changes of a developing economy during its industrialization process. An improved measure thus is needed to represent the multiple characteristics of employment quality and describe its gradations on the continuum of industrialization process. In this paper, the authors construct and evaluate multi-component variables to measure employment quality in China. The paper also evaluates its validity by using a panel data regression model to examine the changes between 1990 and 2014. The results indicate that employment quality is significantly associated with an industrialization process, while political and institutional barriers constitute major constraints for the development of the employment quality. Policy implications are also discussed in the paper.

　　【Keywords】 Industrialization; Employment quality; Social security

　　该文为杨艳琳承担的国家社科基金重大招标项目(No. 15ZDC027)和主持的教育部人文社科重点研究基地重大项目(No. 14JJD790042)的系列研究成果之一，于2017年8月在线发表（http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2017.08.009），China Economic Review，Vol. 47 (2018) ,PP274–281.该期刊5年平均影响因子2.008，为太阳集团B类奖励期刊。