Configurational Pathways for the Coordinated Development of County Industry and Employment from the Perspective of Inclusive Growth

During the stage of high-quality economic development, the synergy between advancing county industrial structure and employment growth has become a key issue in county governance. Although existing studies confirm that industrial structure has both creation and substitution effects on employment, few have adopted a configurational perspective to reveal how combinations of multiple factors can jointly promote both advanced county industrial structure and employment growth, thereby achieving industry-employment synergy. From the perspective of inclusive growth, this study incorporates six factors-economic level, financial level, innovation level, human capital, fiscal expenditure, and agricultural resources-into a unified analytical framework under the dimensions of efficiency and equity. Using a mixed method that combines dynamic QCA and regression analysis, and taking 1128 Chinese counties as the sample, this study explores configurational pathways that can simultaneously achieve advanced county industrial structure and inclusive employment growth. The findings are as follows: (1) Four configurational pathways lead to advanced county industrial structure: market-driven with efficiency priority (C1), endowment-substituted with factor concentration (C2), endowment-dependent with efficiency-equity coordination (C3), and talent–innovation dual-driven with government assistance (C4). (2) These four pathways differ in their effectiveness in promoting industry–employment synergy. Configurations C1, C2, and C3 achieve coordinated development of county industry and employment, whereas configuration C4 promotes advanced county industrial structure but inhibits employment growth. The conclusions reveal multiple equivalent pathways for synergistically enhancing county industry and employment, providing a basis for local governments to formulate context-specific industry–employment coordination policies.