The effect of digital transformation on labour market: An application on Turkey in terms of sectoral and occupational employment

Digital technologies have been becoming widespread day by day both in economic and in societal areas though in different paces in each country global scale. In parallel to this important developments and changes have appeared. Applying the mentioned technologies increasingly in the production, distribution and consumption phases of products and services has come to the forefront as a complementary element of global economy. The number of the economic activities affected by accelarating digital transformation today has been increasing every day. Digital transformation causes serious effects on labour market. Generally, digital transformation is of the potential to change labour market considerably in terms of labour demand and labour supply because of many changes it caused from the emergence od new working ways to differentiation of needed skills. Through the increase in the use of digital technologies, it is foreseen that human effort will be needed less and the demand for the labour force of different levels of skills and qualification will increase. Therefore, it is suggested that several economic and social problems will be increasingly encountered especially unemployment, insecurity and inequality in labor market. In this context, this thesis aims to examine the tendencies and the possible changes observed in both global and Turkish labour market, in parallel to digital transformation period. The effect of digitalization in respect of Turkey labour market has been searched especially in sectoral and occupational terms. In the study, a detailed literature scan has been primarily made on digital transformation, then its effect on labour market has been examined. Nevertheless, the effects of digital transformation on employment in Turkey in terms of quantity and quality given the occupations have been examined with panel data analysis method using the data of 2010-2019 period of industry and service sectors. With the research, the finding has been achieved that the digital transformation in the concept of discussed sectors in the mentioned period generally has a positive effect on the increase of employment. However, according to the obtained findings, the effect of digital transformation on employment in occupations with high, medium and low level of qualifications differs. In parallel to the increase in the tendency of firms operating in the mentioned sectors towards digitalization, it has been concluded that there is a tendency to employ higher-quality labour force. Although it is not yet possible to concretely and exactly reveal the effects of digital transformation on employment in the long-run from sectoral and occupational standpoint in Turkey, it can be predicted that with the acceleration of digitalization in the coming years, there will be an increase in the demand for the high-quality labour force carrying out non-routine cognitive tasks, and therefore there will be a serious increase tendency in employment. In this context, in parallel to digital transformation, both potential opportunities and destructive effects to occur and the development and application of precautions to secure the covering of qualifications and skills to be needed with the changing of labor demand in labor market will become an important agenda of economic, social and political discussions in the following years in terms of our country as in the whole world.