Abstract: The large-scale application of information technology and robots and the deep participation of global value chain have imposed a significant impact on the skilled labor employment in China. For this reason, this paper studies the impact of capital-biased technological progress and the status of global value chain on the changes of China’s skilled labor employment from the perspective of global value chain. By building a global value chain model based on production tasks and using the World Input-Output Table (WIOD), the results of the study show that the participation in global value chains has significantly improved the high, medium, and low-skilled employment, among which the high-skilled employment increases the fastest. Compared with high-tech products and services, the demand for highly skilled labor in the global value chain of traditional manufactured goods is increasing faster. Further decomposition of the factors affecting the employment of skilled labor shows that the main factors for the increase of high-skilled labor employment are the improved status of global value chain, the increase of global aggregate demand and the capital-biased technological advancement. The employment of medium- and lower-skilled labors is mainly due to the increase in global aggregate demand and the rise of global value chain status; the capital-biased technological advancement has reduced the employment of the medium- and lower-skilled labors. The conclusions of this paper have important implications for China’s industrial informationization, opening up strategy and labor market construction.

Key words: capital-biased technological progress; global value chain status; changes of skilled labor employment