Abstract: From the middle of 1980s, Neoclassical Economics has taken the dominant role in the study of SLM theory by widening the meaning of ILM. However, the equilibrium perspective offsets the basic paradox that capitalist production relationship has produced Segmented Labor Markets. The researches of the Western Marxist Economics represented by the Radical Political Economics have offered further explanations to the formation and continuance of SLM from production relations by analyzing the capitalist labor process and the social structures of accumulation. While the view of the Cambridge School that social-economic factors are playing a role in the formation of the labor markets is helpful in explaining how the supply and demand structures of labor markets are segmented naturally, which introduces more social-economic factors into the discussion. In the context of globalized production, the review, interaction and extension of above theories can provide better references of methodology for the interpretations of China’s SLM.

Key words: SLM theory; Neoclassical Economics; RPE; the Cambridge School.