Industry 4.0 and its Role on Labour Market: A Comparative Analysis of Turkey and European Countries

Abstract

There is a close relationship between labour markets and technology. Technological development enhances labour productivity and creates new jobs in some industries requiring to be different skills while it destroys jobs in ones requiring to be low-skilled. Today, it is experiencing a deep digital transformation. It may be evaluated for Industry 4.0 to cause technological unemployment due to changes in the structure of employment and to bring about new structural problems in labour market. In addition, it is expected for technological progress such as automation and robotic in the production process to negatively influence employment of low-skilled workers. Industry 4.0 has generated a new production model, in which robotic technologies are effectively used in the production process. So-called new technology-based production process has started to change production, working relationship and daily life. Discussions about the effects of the developments in technology on the labour market and unemployment are separated two groups. While there exist optimist views indicating that such development in technology will result in more productivity, pessimists believe that the use of robots, artificial intelligence, smart systems and algorithms in business life will eventually bring problems such as mass unemployment, mass poverty and social disruption. In this study, the authors aim to analyse the potential effects of Industry 4.0 on labour market in Turkey and European countries. From the findings of the study, the authors concluded that Turkey have a higher risk at automation than European countries.

Citation

Erer, E. and Erer, D. (2020), "Industry 4.0 and its Role on Labour Market: A Comparative Analysis of Turkey and European Countries", Akkaya, B. (Ed.) Agile Business Leadership Methods for Industry 4.0, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-380-920201006