Abstract: This paper, based on the actual needs of rural talent team construction in rural revitalization and combined with the background of vigorously promoting digital economy, explores the impact of the development of the digital economy on the willingness of migrant workers to get employed or start business in their hometown by employing the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) in 2016-2018 and the digital economy related indices of various prefecture level cities. Empirical evidence supports the conclusion of theoretical analysis that the digital economy has a significant inhibitory effect, and this conclusion still holds true after a series of robustness tests. The results of mechanism testing show that employment quality plays a key mediating role, and individual age and urban government governance ability play negative and positive regulating roles respectively. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the digital economy bears a more obvious inhibitory effect on the willingness of the younger generation, and migrant workers getting employed in the eastern region and local cities. To promote the healthy development of the digital economy, actively guide high-quality migrant workers to return their hometown, and provide talent assistance for rural revitalization, the following policy measures should be taken: we should improve the construction of digital infrastructure, optimize the development environment of rural industries; we should promote the sustainable development of migrant workers and establish a mechanism for diverting them back to their hometowns; we should fully leverage the dividends of the digital economy and improve the employment quality of urban and rural workers.

Key words: digital economy, quality of employment, willingness to return hometown, rural revitalization