*4.1. Temporal Evolution Analysis of Integrated Level*

From a temporal perspective, the evolution trend of FT and LM in China from 2015 to 2019 is not obvious due to the influence of agricultural production conditions, the development of non-agricultural industries, and new urbanization, and its evolution trend is relatively stable. From the spatial perspective, in order to clarify rural land contracting relationships, clarify rural land property rights, solve the problems of inaccurate arable land area and the unclear four boundaries operated by peasant households under contract, guide the orderly transfer of rights to manage rural land, and realize large-scale agricultural operations, China has carried out the registration and certification of land contracting rights and the rural land system reform of "separating rural land ownership rights, contract rights, and management rights", which has increased the enthusiasm of rural labor forces to participate in the transfer of farmland, guided them to complete the transfer of farmland in an orderly manner, concentrated the land in individuals or organizations such as large planters and new agricultural business entities, promoted the moderate scale operation of agriculture and the rational allocation of land resources, and significantly improved the level of FT. The provinces with relatively high LM evaluation index are concentrated in the eastern region, which is due to the higher level of new urbanization and development of non-agricultural industries in the eastern region, which has a certain radiation and driving effect, and is conducive to improving the absorption capacity of cities and towns for rural labor forces and providing sufficient jobs for them. At the same time, the transfer of farmland can promote occupational differentiation within society and division of labor within families, promote the transfer of rural labor forces to cities and non-agricultural industries, realize the flow and reorganization of labor factors, and improve the level of LM. The difference between the overall evaluation levels of FT and LM in provinces is significant, which is due to the unbalanced development levels of the two subsystems in most provinces, and the lower level of FT in areas with a higher level of LM and vice versa, which directly affects the overall evaluation index level of the whole system.

#### *4.2. Spatio-Temporal Evolution Analysis of Coupling Coordination*

At the regional level, as a region with a higher economic levels and social development and better agricultural production conditions in China, the eastern region ought to have a higher CCD of FT and LM than other regions; however, it has a lower coupling coordination level that in the central region, which is due to the expansion of demand for land from new urbanization and non-agricultural industry development, so that it has caused some farmland in the eastern region to be converted to non-agricultural use, which directly affects farmland transfer and leads to a small decline in its coupling coordination level. The rate of LM in the central region has increased significantly, and the conditions of agricultural production and operation have improved. The geographical environment conditions are better, which makes the level of FT and LM increase significantly, thus making its coupling coordination level higher than other regions. As the main grain producing area in China, the northeast region has superior land resource endowment conditions, high level of agricultural mechanization and large-scale operation, and should have a higher level of FT, but the level of FT varies significantly within the region. Agriculture still occupies an important position in the region, and the level of LM is relatively lagging behind, so that the CCD of FT and LM in the northeast region is lower than that in the central and eastern regions. Compared with other regions, the western region has relatively backward agricultural production conditions, urbanization level, and non-agricultural industry development level, and the level of FT and LM are not dominant, so its coupling coordination level is lower than other regions. From the perspective of provinces, the provinces with relatively high level of coupling coordination between FT and LM are mainly located in the east and central regions. The reason is that the level of FT and LM in these provinces is at a higher level, which directly affects the other subsystem and enables it to enjoy certain advantages in the coupling coordination development of FT and LM, so it shows a higher degree of coupling coordination. For Shanghai and Jiangsu, the rapid development of economy and society, new urbanization, and non-agricultural industries can provide a large number of employment opportunities, absorb a large number of migrated labor forces, and fully meet the requirements of rural labor force for concurrent employment or non-agricultural employment. While Heilongjiang has comparative advantages in land resource endowment, excellent level of agricultural equipment, high efficiency of agricultural labor production, and better development of farmland transfer market. The level of FT is higher than that of other regions. The provinces with relatively low level of coupling coordination are mainly located in the western region, while the other three regions also involve a few provinces. This is due to the low development level of both subsystems in Hainan, Yunnan, and Liaoning provinces, which directly reduces the level of coupling coordination. The agricultural farming conditions in these provinces are relatively backward, and the rural labor force is more dependent on the land. The degree of fragmentation of farmland is high, such as the "land belonging to one production unit but enclosed in that of another" in Hainan Province. The imperfect development of the transfer market makes the level of FT relatively low. The large population and poor comprehensive quality of the rural labor force in the western region, the outstanding structural contradictions in transferring employment, and the level of development of local non-agricultural industries cannot meet the willingness to transfer locally, which seriously hinders the development of LM.

#### *4.3. Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis*

The CCD of FT and LM in China shows agglomeration effects with high and low values, respectively. On the one hand, because the level of urbanization and non-agricultural industry development in the eastern region is better than other regions, which can provide sufficient employment opportunities for LM, the higher level of LM will directly affect the development of FT, which is manifested by the higher CCD of these provinces; thus, the phenomenon of agglomeration in high-value areas has emerged. On the other hand, the agricultural production conditions, urbanization level, and development level of nonagricultural industries in western provinces are relatively backward, so the development

level of FT and LM are both low and have not yet achieved coordinated development, resulting in a low degree of coupling coordination between them, thus showing a significant low-value area agglomeration phenomenon.

#### *4.4. Analysis of Driving Factors*

(1) The level of concurrent employment business has the greatest influence on the CCD of FT and LM, primarily because of the rise in agricultural production efficiency and the level of agricultural mechanization and because the demand for labor factors in agricultural production and operation activities continues to decrease, from which a significant amount of unneeded labor is released. Under the combined influence of various aspects, such as the heterogeneity of resource endowment of farm households, the comparative income gap between agriculture and non-farm industries, the nature of agricultural production's seasonality, and the traditional concept of farm households, a large number of concurrent employment farm households have emerged and gradually become the common production status of farm households. However, concurrent employment farmers still have a certain degree of attachment to the land, and the transfer of farmland does not always occur in this production state, which makes the efficiency of farmland transfer not optimal, and the LM under the concurrent employment operation has obvious "migratory bird" characteristics, which directly affects the coupling coordination development of FT and LM.

(2) The level of non-agricultural industry development has the second highest impact on coordination degree of FT and LM. This is due to the significant pull effect of non-agricultural industries on LM; the higher level may help the economic growth of the province and create more jobs for rural surplus labor. The more non-agricultural employment opportunities, the more likely rural laborers will break away from agricultural production to engage in non-agricultural employment. Meanwhile, as rational economic people, income level is the key factor for rural laborers to measure whether to transfer employment. When the level of non-farm income is higher than the income from agricultural operation, laborers will choose to shift to non-farm industries and generate the willingness to shift to self-contracted land management.

(3) The impact of the level of urbanization on coordination degree is in the third place. For rural laborers, the expansion of new urbanization offers numerous employment opportunities, which is conducive to increasing the transfer income of laborers, ensuring their long-term and stable transfer, and increasing the rate of transfer of rural laborers. Meanwhile, in order to meet the increasingly diversified demands of urban residents for agricultural products, the state has introduced corresponding "strong and favorable agricultural" policies to encourage the development of new agricultural business entities and orderly guide capital to the countryside, which has gradually strengthened the demand for land in order to realize large-scale, specialized, and scientific agricultural production and operation, and stimulated the farmland transfer market. It has accelerated the orderly transfer of farmland.

(4) The level of agricultural equipment affects the development of coupling coordination in fourth place. Agricultural machinery can replace some labor factors, reduce labor factor inputs in agricultural production and operation activities, improve agricultural production efficiency, release more surplus agricultural labor, promote occupational differentiation within rural society and division of labor within households, improve the transfer market's supply–demand relationship, realize stable and efficient farmland transfer, increase the willingness of rural labor to transfer employment, and improve the level of FT and LM.

(5) The influence of the land approval on coupling coordination development is in the fifth position. On the one hand, it is conducive to solving the problem of ambiguous property rights of farmland, urging farmers to participate actively in FT, improving the probability and level of FT, and releasing the bundle of fragmented farmland operation and inefficient agricultural production labor. On the other hand, land approval can enhance the strength of farmland property rights, enhance land rights and interest protection during LM, reduce the cost of LM, make the migrated labor not worry about the risk of land loss, encourage the employment of LM, and improve the long-term and stability of transfer employment.
