The Resurgence of State-Sector Employment? The COVID-19 Pandemic and Chinese Workers’ Shifting Job Satisfaction

While anecdotal accounts have noted the growing appeal of state-sector jobs in China since the COVID-19 pandemic, no formal investigation has yet examined this trend. We use nationally representative data from the 2016–2022 China Family Panel Studies to analyze cross-sector trends in job satisfaction from before to during the pandemic. Multi-dimensional job satisfaction is examined, including satisfaction with income, job security, working environment, working hours, promotion opportunities, and overall job quality. Fixed-effects models reveal that before the pandemic, increases in job satisfaction were greater among non-state-sector employees; during the pandemic, however, they were greater among state-sector employees. Proposed mediators (income, confidence in the future, and subjective income or social status) do not explain the observed sectoral differences. Our findings highlight the shifting landscape of work-related inequalities across employment sectors amid drastic social change.