City size and the employment of female migrant workers in the service sector: Evidence from urban China

More than 50 million female migrant workers (FMWs) are employed in urban China. This study establishes a causal relationship between city size and the probability of FMWs engaging in the service sector by arguing that large cities with more high-skilled local workers have a higher demand for household services, creating more job opportunities and attracting FMWs to seek jobs in the urban sector. Employing nationally representative data, empirical evidence shows that households in larger cities tend to spend a greater proportion of their income on household services than in smaller cities. The further discussion shows that a higher share of FMWs in a city significantly improves the labor participation rates and the weekly working hours of high-skilled local female workers (LFWs), implying a skill complementarity between them. These results shed light on the role played by FMWs in the urban labor market of China.