Analysing the current state, key issues and evolving trends in research on the employment of returnees in China can provide guidance for research and practice in this field. Using a sample of 2,077 academic papers on the employment of returnees from overseas, as indexed in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, this paper applies CiteSpace visualisation software to construct spatio-temporal and content-based knowledge maps. The results show that research interest in the employment of returnees has continued to decline over the past three years; research efforts in this field are highly fragmented, having yet to generate representative research groups; key research topics include returnee talent , returnee entrepreneurship, talent recruitment and innovation and entrepreneurship; the evolution of the research has progressed through three stages of “talent mobility and willingness to return-entrepreneurial behaviour and performance mechanisms-occupational adaptation, local integration and policy governance”.Accordingly, the paper suggests that future research into the employment of ‘returnees’ should place greater emphasis on areas such as the evaluation of policy effectiveness, employment quality and occupational adaptation, the sustainable development of entrepreneurship, and the collaborative development of returnees and local talent. It should promote the integration of multiple theoretical frameworks, innovation in digital research paradigms, and interdisciplinary collaboration, with a view to providing more explanatory theoretical support for returnee talent policies and employment practices in the new era.