As an important battlefield of national poverty alleviation, QinlingBashan Mountain is a representative area among the contiguous destitute areas in China. In the new stage of solving the problem of relative poverty, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to explore the temporal and spatial characteristics and influencing factors of nonagricultural employment in QinlingBashan Mountain areas. Results show that the spatial distribution of nonagricultural employment in QinlingBashan Mountain areas was extremely uneven. Since the implementation of the targeted poverty alleviation strategy, the overall employment growth of QinlingBashan Mountain areas has been obviously faster than the average level of contiguous destitute areas in China, but the growth trend of counties varies greatly. The border area between Henan, Shaanxi and Hubei province was the hot spot for the increase of nonfarm employment. There was a strong spatial dependence among counties in QinlingBashan Mountain areas, and the nonagricultural employment growth of neighboring counties had a positive spillover effect on the nonagricultural employment growth of the county. Initial employment scale, economic growth, social development, geographical and market location factors all affected the nonagricultural employment growth in QinlingBashan Mountain areas. Initial nonfarm payrolls suppressed nonfarm employment growth. Local government expenditure, health care, accessibility to cities and flat terrain conditions significantly contributed to nonfarm employment growth. Finally, from the perspective of promoting the growth of nonagricultural employment in contiguous destitute areas, the corresponding policy recommendations were put forward.

nonfarm employment; spatialtemporal pattern; spatial econometrics; QinlingBashan Mountain areas