중소제조업체의 기술집약도별 산업기술인력 수급불균형 원인에 대한 연구

Abstract

This paper studies the supply and demand of Industrial Technology Labor-force(ITL) and analyzes the determinants of ITL shortage in Korean small manufacturing enterprises. We classified the industry into four categories based on their R&D intensity like OECD; 'high technology industry', 'medium-high technology industry', 'medium-low technology industry' and 'low technology industry'. In spite of OECD's earlier data than ours, our small enterprises' R&D intensity is lower than that of OECD. But the classified industry groups are very similar to the OECD's. For the empirical analysis we used a survey data conducted by Korea Technology Foundation. It includes 5,204 small enterprises engaged in the manufacturing industry and shows each enterprise’s current number of employees, vacancies and employees to be hired. The phenomena of ITL distribution by technology intensity are as fellows; The largest proportion of ITL(46.6%) are employed in medium-high technology industry, followed by the high technology industry(22.7%). It means that majority of ITL are engaged in relatively high technology areas. The medium-high technology industry records the highest proportion(49.2%) from the ITL vacancy as well. On the other hand, the proportions of current employees and vacancies are relatively low in both of medium-low technology industry and low technology industry. Therefore, it could be expected that relatively high technology industry plays an important role in ITL market. In order to look for the working condition and imbalance of ITL in small enterprise, we measure the mobility index and vacancy rate. The mobility index indicates the movement of labor-force whatever the movement - in or out the job - is. In our small enterprises, the mobility index is highest in high technology group. The rate of vacancy is the representative index for measurement of labor-force imbalance. The rate of vacancy by technology intensity in high technology industry is higher than any other industry group. Most of our small enterprises’ ITL are placed in high technology industry, and their mobility is the highest. Therefore, it is presumed that the labor market of ITL is the most active in high technology industry. We employ the Tobit model to identify the key determinants of labor shortage problem because the dependent variable - rate of vacancy is censored in 0(zero) which means always positive, then the OLS estimation will be biased and inconsistent. The dependent variable, rate of vacancy is defined a situation when there is not enough manpower that are needed and calculated by the ratio of vacancy of total employee(current and vacancy). There are three kinds of independent variables expected to impact on supply and demand imbalance of ITL. One is the firm specific factor, another is the inside labor-force demand factor, and the third is the supply factor. It can be expected that supply and demand inequality of labor-force is mainly caused by difference between the labor-force quantity of supply and demand. And the firm specific factor has an impact on the both sides of supply and demand of ITL. First, the firm specific factor includes the size of firm, geographic location and industrial location. Other things being equal, a firm which is bigger, closer to the capital region, and locates inside the industrial complex is better for demanding ITL. Second, the inside labor-force demand factor contains per capita(employee) sales, R&D intensity, the firm satisfaction measurement with ITL, existence of research department, and the ratio of ITL to total employees. It is expected that per capita sales - the proxy variable of productivity is inversely proportional to vacancies of ITL. And if there are enough labor-force and the firms are satisfied with current employee, the demand of ITL will decrease. If the firm has a R&D department, high R&D intensity and high ratio of ITL to total employee, then the demand of ITL will be expected to increase. Third, the supply factor includes the average wage and turnover rate which is calculated by the ratio of retiring or leaving from current employment. They can be an indicator to show the working condition. The lower average wage is and the higher turnover rate is , the more difficult it is to employ labor-force. The key findings are as follows: Firstly, the majority of ITL in small manufacturing enterprises are engaged in medium-high technology industry. And it shows clearly that in the industry, the bigger the enterprise is, the less serious labor-force shortage problem is. So it is suggested to support their growth to solve the labor-force shortage in small enterprises. Secondly, in the long run, the high technology industry should play an important role in ITL market. So the policies to supply a well-educated ITL such as Master's Degree are especially effective in the high technology industry. Thirdly, the ITL shortage problems of small business are mainly due to demand side factors such as existence of R&D department, proportion of ITL to total employment, etc. This result is interesting because at the whole manufacturing industry case which includes large firms, the main cause of ITL shortage problem was found out as the supply side factors. Lastly, the causes of imbalance between supply and demand of ITL in small enterprises are not so different by technology categories as in the whole manufacturing. It means Korean small manufacturing enterprise is not specialized enough to divide based on their R&D intensity yet. Thus, it is necessary to support the policy to bring on the technical specialization, diversity and knowledge spillover of small enterprises. In the long run, it is important to make policies to link education and research with small enterprises' participation. Based on the findings, we discover some political meanings as follows: Most of all, it is important to encourage their growth to reduce ITL shortage problem in medium-small enterprises. Also, the policies to supply the relatively well-educated ITL are especially effective in the high technology industry. Finally, although only a few small enterprises are active in R&D, they have to be the most important targets for the policies to relieve the shortage of ITL. That is the reason why it is the demand side factors which causes shortage problems of ITL in small business. The aim of this paper is to identify the major characteristics and feature of ITL market of Korean small manufacturing enterprises. But it could not include the dynamic change of ITL market and clarify the difference between larger and smaller enterprise because of data shortage. Therefore, the political implication is limited to basic matters. The criterion that we used is the R&D intensity as OECD, but especially the borders in a certain industry are very ambiguous to be divided. Thus, future studies are needed to include above matters and also need further studies about the criterion of industry classification based on their technological level.