Unlike studies that analyze the impact of robotics technology on overall employment at the industry or firm level, this study investigated cross-division employment adjustment within a firm in an industry with greater diffusion and penetration of robotics technology. By examining changes in the composition of employment, we measured job creation and destruction at the division level and explored whether robotics technology, as a leading example of automation, not only displaces workers but also introduces new jobs in favor of labor. We made use of unique, division-level employment data for Japan’s manufacturing firms, together with industry-level data on the installation of industrial robots. We found that industry-level adoption of robots positively affects the firm-level job creation rate and the job destruction rate. Because the magnitude of the impact is larger for job destruction, robot adoption has an overall negative impact on firms’ net employment growth. Our findings suggest that the labor displacement effect of robotics technology and the emergence of new jobs due to technological change coexist even at the firm level.

与分析机器人技术对行业或公司整体就业的影响的研究不同，本研究调查了一个行业中公司中跨部门的雇佣调整，该行业具有更大的机器人技术传播和渗透能力。通过检查就业构成的变化，我们在部门级别上测量了工作的创造和破坏，并探讨了机器人技术作为自动化的领先例子是否不仅取代了工人，而且还引入了有利于劳动力的新工作。我们利用了日本制造公司独特的部门级雇佣数据，以及有关工业机器人安装的行业级数据。我们发现，在行业层面采用机器人会对企业层面的工作创造率和工作破坏率产生积极影响。由于对工作岗位的破坏影响更大，因此采用机器人会对公司的净就业增长产生总体负面影响。我们的发现表明，即使在公司层面，机器人技术的劳动力转移效应和由于技术变革而出现的新工作也并存。