This paper explores the continuality of effects of work unit in intergenerational mobility in urban China based on a 1996 survey data from Wuhan city. Statistical findings suggest that the sector, rank, and size of parents’ work unit have significant effects on that of their children’s first work unit since 1978, and this intergenerational inheritance of work unit is becoming more and more significant even after 1986 when dingti and neizhao policy was abolished. It also shows that through all history periods (1949-1966, 1966-1976, 1977-1986, and 1987-1996), despite of its increasing effects on occupational status, education has only relatively limited effects on the entrance to work units compared with that of parents’ work unit. The authors conclude that the effect of work unit on social mobility has not declined, on the contrary, it is, together with education, continuously playing a role in urban Chinese citizen status attainment.
