Technequality Webinar 1: 20 January 2021, 12.00 - 13.00h CET

Title: Scenarios on how Technological Innovations will affect Work

By Prof. Dr. Didier Fouarge (Maastricht University).  

Abstract:

The current wave of technological innovations (AI, robotics) has the potential to disrupt labour markets and increase societal inequalities. This challenge demands policy answers under a significant amount of uncertainty. Predicting if, how, and when technologies will affect the demand for labour, and the impact of automation on labour markets, economies and societies is not straightforward. In two studies of the Horizon 2020 Technequality project, we inform the policy debate by discussing future scenarios of how technological innovations could change labour markets in EU countries. Key variables in these scenarios are the extent of the penetration of automation in industries and jobs, and the speed at which automation will be adopted in the economy. In plausible scenarios, we quantify the expected effects on jobs by 2030 and outline implications for education systems and social policies. We estimate that the number of jobs destroyed ranges from 12.5 million to 106.6 million, depending on the scenario considered. These are the estimated direct job destruction effects of automation but do not account for the indirect (compensatory) effects of automation on job creation. We also show that the impact of automation on work crucially depends on the scope government interventions and policies. In this Technequality webinar, we will guide you through the scenarios developed and introduce a web-application that allows stakeholders to visualize the potential impact of automation on employment by country, industry and occupation.