In recent years, with the rapid evolution of new-generation information technologies, such as mobile Internet, big data, and AI, digital transformation has profoundly changed the organizational structure, business model, and innovation mode of enterprises, and is becoming the key force in promoting the development of service-oriented manufacturing. However, from the development experience of developed countries, if no effective measures are taken, the process of industrial transformation and upgrading is likely to be accompanied by an expansion of social wealth inequality. Therefore, what impact will digitalization have on factor income distribution while promoting the transformation of enterprises from traditional manufacturing to service-oriented manufacturing?

Based on the data of China’s A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2021, this paper constructs a multi-sector general equilibrium model with occupation differences for theoretical analysis. The results show that enterprise digital transformation significantly increases the proportion of service occupations and the wage premium but has a negative impact on the share of labor income. This effect exhibits significant heterogeneity due to differences in corporate ownership structure, size, factor intensity, and industry affiliation. Mechanism testing reveals that capital deepening and labor productivity improvement are important channels. Extensive analysis suggests that improving the tax system and adjusting the structure of government expenditure can help mitigate the continuous decline of the share of labor income in the digital economy era. This paper reveals the interactive patterns between occupational structure changes and income distribution evolution in the digital economy era, providing policy implications for the government to promote high-quality economic development that balances efficiency and fairness.

The main innovations of this paper are as follows: First, in terms of research perspective, it explores the patterns of occupational structure changes and factor income distribution in the digital economy era from the perspective of digital technology application. Second, in terms of research content, it incorporates enterprise digital transformation, occupational structure changes, and factor income distribution into a unified analytical framework, constructs a multi-sector general equilibrium model with occupation differences to numerically simulate the relationships among the three, and ultimately reveals the actual impact of enterprise digital transformation on occupational structure and income distribution through empirical analysis.