Strengthening the adaptability of vocational skill to the economy and the society is an important path for the workforce to improve its income level. Based on 6,725 samples from the Chinese General Social Survey database spanning 7 years, Stata17.0 and the adjusted Mincer’s education earnings equation are used to empirically analyze the impact of vocational education’s skill match on the workforce’s salary income in China. The econometric results show that in general skill match, the interaction term between skill match and Internet use, and the interaction term between skill match and education could significantly positively affect individual salary income, with impact coefficients of .01, .01, and .005, respectively; the heterogeneity analysis reveals that skill matching has a more significant effect on income enhancement for the older age, male, the higher level of educational qualification, and the eastern part of the country. The effect of skill matching on income is significantly higher in the eastern region than those in the central and western regions, and the middle and lower income groups are more significantly affected by skill matching. The contribution of this study is to empirically analyze impact of skill match and its moderating effects on individual salary income as per the education level being vocational education in China, which in turn helps to strengthen the skill training at all stages of vocational education, pay attention to the dissemination of information and the use of technology on the Internet, and improve the coordination of professional settings and job requirements among regions.
Li et al. (2026) studied this question.