The labor market
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION?
The labor market is evolving at lightning speed. The way in which services and products are delivered is undergoing enormous changes. The exact impact of these dynamics is still difficult to measure precisely. The skills and abilities that are required today to operate in the labor market will no longer be so tomorrow.
The predictions about the evolution of jobs give perspective on the future but are not definitive. Every individual can help shape the evolution by making intrinsic interests and talents relevant on the labor market and thus increasing the human input. Crucial in the digitization process is that every actor in society, companies, workers, citizens, governments, and organizations, can reap the benefits that this process brings. The offering of perspective by governments and social partners creates the conditions for a smooth transition to a digital society and economy where more prosperity, inclusion and sustainability is guaranteed.
Offering perspective to yourself, to your loved ones, to your communities and integrating perspective in policy is hugely important to transform uncertain feelings into determination and ambition. A first step is always to gather information, followed by self-reflection about your own role. The digital (r)evolution will require an adaptive capacity from humans to let go of the known and to take new paths with one goal: a more prosperous, inclusive, and efficient world.
DIGITAL EVOLUTION
The increasing use of information, communication and derived technologies (robotics, AI, nanotechnology, machine learning, big data analysis, etc.) by individuals, companies and governments has a significant impact on economic, ecological, political and socio-cultural developments.
The labor market is characterized by the beginning of an era where manpower is no longer the measure, but intellectual labor is the norm. Therefore, the difference in natural bodies is no longer a justifiable reason for gendered relationships in the labor market.
Digital/technological innovation gives both the individual and the collective the opportunity to reinvent themselves, eliminate rigid (gender) structures, and redefine gender roles as no longer determinative in the future labor market. Digitalization implies promising prospects, but also disruption of the labor market. Technological progress can no longer be stopped, but the possibility to let it flow out of a child society is there.
Educating children to become critical impact makers is a priority in a changing world, this by encouraging them to look for social challenges themselves and to reflect on them in a solution-oriented way towards the future.
Gender balance in the digitization of the labor market
Using the designation automation ‘trends’ instead of ‘risks’ is a conscious choice. 'Automation risks' has a negative connotation and this is not necessarily so. The term risk represents a potential danger that may result in an actual incident resulting in injury and damage. If automation risks are viewed as a matter of an undesirable event, the opportunities created by a changing labor market are ignored.