Digital transformation is an important option for firms to reshape their business forms and strengthen their operational resilience during the crisis. This paper empirically examines the effect of corporate digital transformation on employment size during a crisis based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2016-2021. It is found that digital transformation helps increase employment size during the crisis, specifically during the epidemic, each 1% increase in corporate digital transformation leads to a 2.7% relative increase in employment size. Among them, digital transformation mainly enhances the employment scale during the crisis through the "broadening effect" and "deepening effect", and its employment substitution effect is not obvious. In cities with severe epidemics, digital eco-industries and state-owned enterprises, digital transformation is more likely to increase employment during a crisis. Finally, digital transformation can improve employee income and labor productivity during a crisis. This paper provides an important reference for maintaining social stability during the crisis and for the realization of the double-cycle strategy.