Abstract: Under the impetus of the “New Infrastructure” initiatives, there has been rapid development in digital technology and the digital economy. Digital technology and the digital economy have emerged as crucial catalysts for driving China’s economic growth and shaping a new dual-cycle development pattern. It is crucial to leverage the advantages of the digital economy and harness the positive effects of digital technology to drive high-quality employment. This paper constructs a balanced panel using data from the 2015-2019 China Household Finance Survey and empirically analyzes the impact of smartphones on flexible employment using a fixed-effects model. The research indicates that as a crucial access tool to digital technology, smartphones significantly enhance the likelihood of laborer engaging in informal and self-employment, while also increasing their employment income. The impact of smartphones on flexible employment varies across job nature, labor characteristics, and regions. Furthermore, this paper identifies that information acquisition and social activities are channels through which smartphones influence flexible employment. The broader the scope of smartphone usage, the greater the likelihood of laborers engaging in flexible employment. Last but not least, smartphones facilitate merchants’ becoming “mobile vendors”, and they also positively impact the operational performance of commerce and industry. This paper provides insights and references for analyzing the employment dividends of the digital economy, promoting the development of flexible employment, and comprehensively stabilizing employment.

Key words: digital economy, digital technology, flexible employment, income