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Many previous waves of technological change have shifted what skills are demanded in the labour market, making some jobs obsolete while creating new ones. But the current wave of change may be the most rapid and unpredictable in history.
How to prepare people to earn a livelihood in the digital age – and how to protect those struggling to do so – is a critical question for digital cooperation, governments and other stakeholders who aim to cut inequality.
At this stage, there appears to be limited value in attempting to predict whether robots and artificial intelligence will create more jobs than they eliminate, although technology historically has been a net job creator.
New business models are fuelling the rise of an informal or “gig” economy in which workers typically have flexibility but not job or income security. In industrialised countries, as more people work unpredictable hours as freelancers, independent contractors, agency workers or workers on internet platforms, there is an urgent need to rethink labour codes developed decades ago when factory jobs were the norm.
While the gig economy tends to make work less formal in industrialised countries, arrangements may be more formal and transparent, and – with appropriate cooperation measures with technology firms – easier for governments to oversee. The challenge, as with industrialised countries, is to uphold labour rights while still allowing flexibility and innovation.
Protecting workers and promoting job creation in the digital age will require smart regulations and investments, and policies on taxation and social protection policies that support workers as they seek to transition to new opportunities.
Source: UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation
