American Economic Journal:
Macroeconomics
ISSN 1945-7707 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7715 (Online)
From Blue- to Steel-Collar Jobs: The Decline in Employment Gaps?
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
(pp. 126–60)
Abstract
I investigate how the introduction of industrial robots is shaping the demographic composition of the US labor force between 1993 and 2014. I find that robots decreased employment of men and women by 3.7 and 1.6 percentage points, contributing to the secular decline in the gender employment gap, and that they decreased employment among Whites and non-Whites by 1.8 and 4.5 percentage points, widening the race/ethnicity employment gap. These effects follow from the persistent occupational segregation in the labor market. Although robots are primarily used in manufacturing, their adverse effects spill over to local service industries, in particular for Blacks and Hispanics.Citation
Lerch, Benjamin. 2025. "From Blue- to Steel-Collar Jobs: The Decline in Employment Gaps?" American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 17 (1): 126–60. DOI: 10.1257/mac.20220051Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E24 Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- L60 Industry Studies: Manufacturing: General
- O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics