Wang Yi and Liu Lei: Synergistic Development of Industry and Employment Is an Important Foundation for Comprehensive Rural Revitalization
The core goal of comprehensive rural revitalization is to realize strong agriculture, beautiful countryside, and wealthy farmers; the deep integration and coordinated development of industry and employment are inevitable requirements for achieving this objective.
The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference proposed to "well implement assistance policies for industry and employment, ensure no large-scale return to poverty occurs, and guarantee the basic livelihood of groups in difficulty." The 2025 Central Economic Work Conference proposed to "continuously consolidate and expand the achievements of the battle against poverty, incorporate normalized assistance into the overall implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, and firmly hold the bottom line of preventing any large-scale return to poverty." The 2026 Central No. 1 Document [1], "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Anchoring the Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Areas to Solidly Promote Comprehensive Rural Revitalization," lists "improving the effectiveness of industrial and employment assistance" as a key component of "implementing normalized and precise assistance." Therefore, focusing on constructing a long-term mechanism for the coordination of rural industry and employment to form a development pattern characterized by thriving industries, stable employment, and income growth can lay a solid foundation for promoting comprehensive rural revitalization.
The Internal Logic of the Coordinated Development of Industry and Employment
The coordinated development of industry and employment refers to a development model that relies on regional resource endowments [2] and labor structures. Through such paths as optimizing industrial structures, upgrading skill matching, and improving institutional guarantees, it ensures that the quality and quantity of jobs created by industry are compatible with the skill levels and career development needs of laborers, thereby simultaneously promoting an increase in industrial competitiveness and growth in resident income. This coordination is not a simple expansion of industrial scale or a numerical increase in employment; rather, it functions by constructing a "virtuous cycle" between industry and employment. In this mechanism, thriving industries create the material basis for expanding employment, while stable employment provides the human capital for industrial development. The two are interdependent and mutually empowering, together forming the core engine driving comprehensive rural revitalization.
The coordinated development of industry and employment primarily emphasizes four aspects. First is the matching of resource endowment with comparative advantage. The key lies in basing efforts on local resource endowments to transform characteristic resource advantages into industrial competitive advantages. This can minimize production costs and improve competitiveness while providing local labor with jobs that suit their skill characteristics, achieving a precise match between resources, industry, and labor. Second is skills training and the enhancement of human capital. Making an industry larger and stronger inevitably requires an improvement in labor quality, while the accumulation of human capital in turn promotes industrial transformation and upgrading. This virtuous interaction—where "industrial demand guides professional skills training, human capital enhancement promotes employment, and stable employment supports industrial development"—can effectively resolve the dilemma of human resource development being decoupled from industrial demand. Third is organizational innovation and interest linkage [3]. Through organizational innovation, modern industry can construct tight interest-linkage mechanisms to achieve a rational distribution of industrial returns. This type of organizational innovation breaks the closed nature of traditional industry and builds an industrial ecosystem where multiple subjects coexist and achieve win-win results. Fourth is the integration of digital technology with traditional industries. Digital technology breaks geographical constraints and can reconstruct industrial forms and employment models; it not only creates new types of jobs but also improves labor market matching efficiency by reducing information asymmetry.
The internal logic of the coordinated development of industry and employment profoundly reflects systemic and dialectical thinking. Industry is the carrier of employment, and employment is the support for industry. Only by grasping this internal connectedness can we avoid the one-sidedness of discussing industry or employment in isolation and activate the endogenous drivers of development. This coordinated development is not static or unchanging, but an evolving process following technological progress, market changes, and institutional innovation. It requires the joint participation and coordinated promotion of multiple parties, including the government, enterprises, and laborers.
The Relationship Between Coordinated Industry-Employment Development and Comprehensive Rural Revitalization
The coordinated development of industry and employment affects every dimension of rural revitalization. This influence is not linear but generates a multiplier effect through complex interaction networks, ultimately driving comprehensive rural revitalization. The effective coordination of industry and employment can both provide the material basis for comprehensive rural revitalization and improve rural social relations. It is a key path for realizing the general requirements of the rural revitalization strategy.
Industrial restructuring and value co-creation are the internal drivers for promoting thriving industries. The impact of coordinated industry-employment development on industrial revitalization is directly reflected in the modern transformation of rural industries. On the one hand, through this coordinated development, rural industries gradually evolve toward large-scale, intensive, and brand-oriented operations, forming a modern industrial system featuring the linkage of the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors [4] and the co-creation of diverse values. This can not only tap into and develop the multiple functions of agriculture and extend the industrial chain but also create diversified, high-quality jobs, leading farmers to share in the value-added returns of the industry. On the other hand, coordinated development can promote the formation of rural industrial clusters. When a specific industry forms a scale effect in a certain region, it attracts related supporting enterprises and service institutions. This cluster effect can lower corporate operating costs and improve market competitiveness while providing rural labor with more employment choices and career development space, forming a development pattern where "industry attracts employment and employment supports industry."
Green development and the improvement of the human settlement environment are the core essentials for achieving ecological habitability. The impact of coordinated industry-employment development on the rural ecological environment exhibits dual characteristics: it may bring environmental pressure due to industrial development, but it may also promote ecological protection through green transformation. The key lies in the choice of development model and the establishment of value orientations. Practice has proven that basing development on rural ecological resource endowments to develop rural green industries can achieve the unification of economic and ecological benefits. Green industries can not only create employment opportunities but also protect the rural ecological environment and enhance the endogenous drive for sustainable development. By promoting the localized employment of the rural labor force, coordinated development can alleviate the degradation of the human settlement environment caused by the "hollowing out" [5] of villages. When farmers can obtain a stable income at their doorstep, they will attach more importance to and invest more in the construction of the rural environment. This transmission mechanism of "industrial development–stable employment–community identity–environmental improvement" is an important path for coordinated development to promote ecological habitability.
Cultural inheritance and community identity are important components of promoting rural cultural civility. The impact of coordinated industry-employment development on the construction of rural cultural civility is mainly reflected in two aspects: the reshaping of cultural values and the strengthening of community identity. Traditional rural culture faces generational gaps in inheritance and value shocks during the modernization process, while characteristic rural industries provide new forms of expression and transmission carriers for rural cultural heritage. This "industry + culture" development model transforms rural culture from a mere object of protection into a living resource that can be produced, consumed, and inherited, thereby strengthening the cultural confidence and sense of identity among rural residents. Coordinated development also provides a platform for young rural labor, attracting more young people to return home to start businesses, thereby alleviating the cultural gap caused by the outflow of talent and injecting fresh blood and innovative vitality into the construction of rural cultural civility.
Subject reconstruction and interest linkage provide the organizational foundation for effective rural governance. By changing the organizational forms and interest patterns of rural society, the coordinated development of industry and employment can lay a solid organizational foundation for "effective governance." The traditional rural governance structure is relatively singular, primarily centered on the "Two Committees" [6] of the village. In the process of coordinated development, on the one hand, economic organizations such as agricultural cooperatives, common prosperity workshops, and industrial alliances have become protagonists in rural economic development and important participants in rural governance. On the other hand, industrial development is tightly bound to rural labor employment and village collective income; villagers, village collectives, and enterprises become a community of shared interests where "all flourish or suffer together." This deep interest linkage greatly stimulates the endogenous motivation of diverse subjects to participate in rural governance.
Diversified income and robust guarantees are the material foundation for farmers' prosperous lives. The coordinated development of industry and employment is directly reflected in the increase of farmers' income and the optimization of their income structure, which is the most solid material basis for achieving a prosperous life. This coordination breaks the singular pattern of farmers relying on "the grace of heaven" (traditional agriculture) for income, realizing diversification and stability in earnings. Stable employment is the most effective firewall preventing low-income groups from returning to poverty. The coordinated development of industry and employment helps establish a long-term "blood-making" [7] mechanism, enhancing the ability of low-income families to withstand economic risks, market fluctuations, and unexpected accidents.
Main Paths for Promoting the Coordinated Development of Rural Industry and Employment
Strengthen planning guidance and policy coordination to improve the top-level design framework. At the county level, clarify the leading industries for priority development, their spatial layout, and employment targets to avoid homogenous competition between towns. At the township level, base efforts on resource endowments to determine specific business formats. At the village level, implement "one policy for one village," focusing on building comparative advantages to form a county-level industrial ecosystem with differentiated development and complementary functions. Furthermore, innovate an integrated "industry-employment" policy toolkit, effectively integrating industrial support policies with employment promotion policies. Use the number of new jobs created and the growth level of employee wages as core indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of rural industrial projects (including assistance projects) and for allocating industrial connection funds, forming a policy orientation of "promoting employment through industry and stabilizing industry through employment."
Cultivate characteristic advantageous industries and industrial clusters to create a core engine for stable employment. Do a good job with refined "local specialty" [8] products and create landmark industrial chains. Deeply excavate and scientifically plan agricultural products, handicrafts, and ecological-cultural resources with local characteristics, promoting their extension from "raw material output" to the "full industrial chain." Support the intensive processing of agricultural products, expand the industrial chain, and increase added value, thereby creating more high-quality jobs in R&D, quality control, marketing, and management. Create regional public brands to drive income growth for farmers throughout the industrial chain via brand premiums. Guide industrial clustering and promote digital transformation. Guide agricultural product processing enterprises to move downstream toward production areas and concentrate in industrial parks to leverage cluster effects, lower logistics costs, attract supporting enterprises, and expand employment capacity. Vigorously implement "developing agriculture through digital commerce," supporting the development of new formats such as livestreaming e-commerce and community group buying, and cultivating new occupations such as "rural livestreamers" and "digital new farmers," achieving the empowerment of rural industrial development through the digital economy by breaking geographical restrictions.
Implement precise skills training and talent cultivation/attraction to improve human capital levels. On the one hand, establish a training mechanism where "enterprises place orders, training institutions provide the menu, and the government pays the bill." Regularly conduct surveys on enterprise labor demand, dynamically adjust and optimize training content according to industrial planning and enterprise needs, and vigorously conduct "order-based" training related to leading rural industries to ensure that trainees can take up their posts upon completion. On the other hand, implement a talent strategy that "addresses both internal and external factors." Vigorously cultivate local leaders for wealth creation, rural craftsmen, and high-quality farmers, giving play to their role as "leading geese" [9]. Attract intelligence from multiple sources by implementing "returning geese projects" to draw university students, migrant workers, and demobilized military personnel back to their hometowns to start businesses and find employment.