Abstract
This paper researches employment structure and its determinants by investigating firms and labor unions in the modern shipbuilding industry. In this research, determinants of employment structure are examined from seven different angles; path dependency, manufacturing system, quality of job, labor market, industrial relations, product market, and change of administrative direction. This enquiry shows that the ratio of subcontract workers has risen since the 1980s and that the ratio of subcontract workers is at an extremely high level at present. By examining determinants of employment structure in the shipbuilding industry, the research reconfirms that this high ratio is caused by characteristics of the manufacturing system and the quality of jobs. It also confirms, from other angles - product market, labor market, industrial relations and change of administrative direction - that determinants of the high ratio of subcontract workers are restructuring during economic recession, transfers of regular workers to subcontract firms and lack of labor union regulation.
