Περιφέρεια Ηπείρου: Τεχνολογία Παραγωγής, Απασχόληση Και Επαγγέλματα[Epirus Regional Department: Production Technology, Employment and Professions]

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the possibilities and the limits of production and technological specialization in Epirus as a region. More specifically, we estimate the dependency and interaction relationships, developed between the sectors of economic activity, which are due to production technology. The analytical framework consists of two parts: first, the analysis emphasizes the demand for employment which is created directly or indirectly in the region and, second, it emphasizes the respective professions, in relation to the level of education and their technological specification. The methodological framework used is the input – output model. More specifically, based on the regional input – output model, the inter- sectoral relations of the regional sectors of economic activity and more precisely, the backward multipliers (BM) for employment and professions are calculated. The backward multipliers measure the unit change of a certain variable in the total economy which is caused by a unit change in the final demand for some sector. The estimation of these multipliers will enable us to pinpoint the sectors which create employment in the region, as well as the level of education and technological specification that this specific employment asks for. The data come from the national accounts of the National Statistical Service of Greece. For the construction of the regional input – output table we used the national input – output table for year 2000, while the rest of the table’s data were estimated by making use of the Regional Accounts and the Greek Labor Market Review. The technological level of the sectors and the professions was analyzed using of the OECD. The empirical analysis shows that, in general terms, the industries generating employment in the region belong mainly to the first sector (agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, etc) whereas certain industries belong to the second sector (light & heavy industry), but are strongly related to the region’s specialization in the first sector. These industries are regarded as sectors of medium and low technological specialization whereas the professions needed are, in general terms, professions of medium and low technological specialization, respectively. However, for the region as a whole, our findings show that there exist possibilities for further development in terms of technological specialization and growth.