What are the goals for the development of China’s small and medium-sized cities？Where are the ways to achieve the development goals？What impacts will development have on employment and people’s livelihood？What roles should local governments play in achieving high-quality development of industry and employment？For these development themes，the leaders in china have been thinking and exploring diligently. Taking small and medium-sized cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt as an example，this paper observes how local governments can achieve high-quality development of urban industries and employment by improving governance efficiency. From the overall perspective of the Yangtze River Economic Belt，economic growth has a significant impact on employment. But there are differences between different regions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Among them，the economic growth of the leading small and medium-sized cities represented by Kunshan has the most direct and largest total spillover effect on employment.

By investigating the economic growth and employment situation of some small and medium-sized cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt，it can be seen that government participation is an important reason affecting the relationship between regional economic growth and employment，which has important reference for other small and medium-sized city governments in China to achieve high-quality development of industry and employment by improving governance efficiency.