The inter-industry employment effects of technological change

This paper analyzes the inter-industry effects of a technological change on the employment in the Turkish manufacturing industry case over the 1985-1998 period. The inter-industry effects are calculated using input-output tables; the technological change is estimated as the growth of total factor productivity. The calculated simple employment multipliers show that the textile and garment industry has the highest capacity to generate employment in all manufacturing industries via intra-and inter-industry linkages. The study suggests that there is a labor substitution on the production employees whereas the forward linkages induced by technological change in other industries have positive effects. However, there is no evidence regarding the backward linkages. The technological change has a positive effect on the administrative employees but a negative effect on the production labor in the skilled labor intensive industries.