Workplace health investment and employment adjustment public health evidence from CSR reports of Chinese A-share listed firms

This study examines whether workplace-health-related corporate practices disclosed in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports are associated with firm-level employment adjustment. Using 12,669 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share non-financial listed firms from 2013 to 2024, we construct a sentence-level measure of CSR-disclosed workplace health practice intensity and relate it to employment growth and residual employment-adjustment volatility. The indicator captures the relative intensity of disclosed occupational health and safety, medical support, mental-health services, health promotion and working-condition improvements. In firm and year fixed-effects models, a one-standard-deviation increase in disclosure intensity is associated with approximately 2.4% points higher employment growth and 0.012 higher three-year adjustment volatility. The associations are accompanied by lower disclosed work-injury rates and employee turnover, and the volatility pattern is concentrated in positive residual adjustment and industry upturns. Instrumental-variable and sample-selection analyses yield estimates consistent with the baseline fixed-effects results and the proposed occupational-health service channel. The results support an interpretation of lower occupational-health-related labor frictions and stronger expansion-oriented employment responsiveness. The study contributes evidence on the labor-market implications of corporate resource allocation toward workplace health governance and provides a firm-level basis for further health-economic evaluation.