“Promoting employment, supporting intelligence first”: the impact of digital literacy on non-farm employment of rural labour

The practical implementation of the employment promotion effect of the digital economy is closely linked to the digital literacy of rural labourers. Based on the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data, this paper uses the Probit model to empirically test the impact and mechanism of digital literacy on rural labour non-agricultural employment. Our findings reveal that digital literacy has significant non-agricultural employment promoting effect, with digital business literacy and digital work literacy having the most significant promotion effect on the impact of non-agricultural employment of rural labourers. The mechanism test reveals that digital literacy promotes rural labour non-agricultural employment by improving rural labour human capital, increasing information accessibility, and decreasing household work time; heterogeneity analysis indicates that digital literacy has a greater non-agricultural employment promotion effect on the rural female labour force. Our findings shed light on the critical issue of Chinese non-agricultural employment in rural China and highlight the importance of improving digital literacy.