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We use the near-universe of Chinese online job ads (2016–2023; 3.2M postings) to measure job-level skill demand and city-specific skill premia. Combining keyword dictionaries with a Chinese BERT classifier, we construct standardized intensities for skills. Three facts emerge. (i) Skill requirements vary sharply across metropolitan areas (MAs), especially for IT. (ii) Prices do not always track skill intensities: high skill demand does not imply high skill premium. (iii) IT and interpersonal premia polarize across MAs and also polarize within jobs. Results offer policy-relevant descriptive implications for worker location and firm siting.
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Hong et al. (2026) studied this question.
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