Does technological innovation bring destruction or creation to the labor market?

• Published in: Technology in society 2022-02, Vol.68, p.101905, Article 101905
• Main Authors: Su, Chi-Wei, Yuan, Xi, Umar, Muhammad, Lobonţ, Oana-Ramona
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bootstrap rolling-window causality test; Causality; Employment; Employment opportunities; Fourth industrial revolution; Innovations; Labor; Labor market; Technological change; Technological innovation; Technological progress; Transformation
• ISSN: 0160-791X; 1879-3274
• DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101905

The latest era of the industrial revolution is the culmination of an accelerating pace of evolution and digital transformation, one that has had a profound impact on the labor market dynamics. The bootstrap rolling-window causality test has been referred to analyze this, in further detail. This approach has been undertaken to start triggering a discourse on the employment benefits of technological innovation and actively respond to the challenges associated with technological progress in the labor market. By studying the interactions between the number of patents (PIs) and the new employment (NE) opportunities during 2013:M01-2021:M8, we have found that the interaction mechanism between innovation and employment is complicated. In this regard, the positive impact can confirm that technological innovation has given a boost to the labor market. However, this view can also be refuted by the negative influences surrounding the concept, primarily because the substitution effect of employment tends to be greater than the creation effect. Therefore, the NE negatively impacts the PIs, indicating that the labor market can be a leading indicator for innovation and development. It should be noted that Chinese society has been in a period of digital transformation for some time now, and the impact of short-term employment also contains new impetus. •The study explores the employment advantages of technological advancement.•Technological progress has boosted the labor market.•The substitution effect of employment greater than the creation effect.•The labor market can serve as a leading indicator for innovation and development.•The influence of work in the short term is a new impulse in Chinese society.