EU 4.0 - The debate on digitalisation and the labour market in Europe

Abstract

"In the recent years an intensive discussion in politics, research, business and society on the influence of digitalisation on the working world has evolved. This development is expected to exert profound effects on the use of human labour. However, judgements widely diverge. The comprehensive debates on "industry 4.0" and "labour 4.0" in Germany are concerned with influences of digitalisation on the economy and the labour market, substitutability of jobs as well as conditions, qualifications and regulations for a new world of employment. Thereby, the discussions are characterised by large uncertainty regarding the future development and thus often focus more on exploration rather than on confronting firmly established positions. This in particular makes it valuable to feed additional information into the national debates. In this, it is worth looking into other countries: Which is the stance of digitalisation, how is the influence on the working world evaluated? Which political positions and measures are discussed? Which programmes and projects were established, are results already conceivable? The underlying report gives an overview for several European countries and for the level of the European Union. Regarding digitalisation, it considers the areas of economic developments, tasks and competences as well as working conditions and changes of the world of employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Grass, K. & Weber, E. (2016): EU 4.0 - The debate on digitalisation and the labour market in Europe. (IAB-Discussion Paper 39/2016 (en)), Nürnberg, 147 p.