LABOUR JOB DIGITALIZATION: MYTHS AND REALITIES

Abstract

Nowadays, there has been a wide discussion and also concerns about the fact that automation and digitalization might result in a serious job loss. On the other hand, in many European countries, there is a serious problem of shortage of labour supply. That means, digitalization can be actually a solution to the problems in labour market rather than a social and economic problem. Researchers are sceptical about “job polarisation”, where middle-skill jobs are declining but both low-skill and high-skill jobs are expanding. Digitalization will not only cause mass unemployment, but it will speed up the existing trend of computer-related automation, disrupting labour markets just as technological change has done before, and will require workers to learn new skills more quickly than in the past. This study analyses the digitalization processes in European countries, in order to cover the problem of labour deficit. In order to detect the possible solutions to labour deficit, we use two particular indices, ICT Specialist Skills and DESI, and correlate their values with the corresponding values of employment rates in specific European countries for the last 5 years. The outcomes may support the views for: (a) structural problems of labour market in Europe, (b) the digitalization impact on employment and substitution of jobs, and (c) a cross-country comparison on how digitalization processes are used and help to solve the labour deficit problem in selected European countries.

Keywords

• Digitalization
• employment
• ICT Skills
• DESI correlation
• European countries