An empirical analysis of the impact of technological innovation on China’s total employment

Abstract

Technological innovation represented by artificial intelligence and 5G networks has developed rapidly, since the reform and opening up, especially in recent years. Technological innovation promotes the upgrading of industrial structure, promotes the increase of employment in emerging industries, at the same time, eliminate the workers in backward industries, which will have an impact on overall employment. Therefore, this paper studies the impact of technological innovation on the total employment of China from an empirical perspective. Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and TFP growth rate calculated by the Solow residual method are used as indicators of the level of technological innovation, and the long-term cointegration regression model and short-term impulse response function are established with the number of employees and employment growth rate as the dependent variables, respectively. The study found that, the impact of technological innovation on employment levels has a stable promotion effect in the long run; in the short run, there is a destructive effect at first, but as time goes by, this destructive mechanism gradually occupies the peak, and the creative mechanism begins to take effect. The leading role, technological innovation has a steady promotion effect on employment.