This dissertation studies the relations between technological change, the state, and employment. In the first essay, we make a case for a new institutional component, Productive State Apparatus, for Social Structure of Accumulation theory to argue that the long periods of stable accumulation and their differential performance can be better explained by the extended institutional framework. In the second essay, we derive a couple of conditions that ensure positive growth in employment within a cyclical growth model and propose a ratio - growth in labor productivity per rate of accumulation- to empirically assess the labor-saving property of capital goods. We provide evidence from both US and other advanced economies that shows that the labor-saving property of capital goods has not become stronger in the period 1979-2007 compared to 1950-1973. In the third essay, we use industry-level data from 12 advanced economies between 1970-2007 and show that neither capital-goods became more effective in labor-saving nor the strength of the relation between output and employment became weaker after 1980 or 1990.