Automation, Skills and the Future of Work: What do Workers Think?

IMF Working Papers, December 20, 2019

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Canonical URL: Automation, Skills and the Future of Work: What do Workers Think?

Authors: Carlos Mulas-Granados, Richard Varghese, Vizhdan Boranova, Alice deChalendar, Judith Wallenstein
Published: December 20, 2019
Series: IMF Working Papers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513519906.001

Study exploits a survey data set containing information on how 11,000 workers across advanced and emerging market economies perceive the main forces shaping the future of work.
Publication: IMF Working Papers, Working Paper No. 2019/288; Volume: 2019; Issue: 288; Pages: 32; DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513519906.001; Stock No: WPIEA2019288; ISBN: 9781513519906; ISSN: 1018-5941.
Authors: Carlos Mulas-Granados, Richard Varghese, Vizhdan Boranova, Alice deChalendar, Judith Wallenstein.
Date: December 20, 2019.

General sentiment:
- Workers feel more positive than negative about automation, especially in emerging markets.
Groups with more negative perceptions:
- Older workers.
- Poorer workers.
- Workers more exposed to job volatility.
- Workers from countries with higher levels of robot penetration.
Groups with more positive perceptions:
- Workers with higher levels of job satisfaction.
- Workers with higher educational attainment.
- Workers from countries with stronger labor protection.
Associations with attitudes toward adaptation and policy:
- Workers with positive perceptions of automation tend to respond that re-education and retraining will be needed to adapt to rapidly evolving skill demands.
- These workers expect governments to have a role in shaping the future of work through protection of labor and new forms of social benefits.
- The demand for protection and benefits is more significant among women and workers that have suffered job volatility.

Skills and training:
- Re-education and retraining are viewed by positively disposed workers as necessary to adapt to rapidly evolving skill demands.
Role of government:
- Expectation that governments should shape the future of work through labor protection and new forms of social benefits.
Distributional considerations:
- Policy responses should account for heterogeneity in perceptions: older, poorer, and job-volatility-exposed workers—especially in countries with high robot penetration—are more negative and may need targeted support.
- Women and workers who have experienced job volatility express stronger demand for protection and benefits.

Subject areas: Automation, Education, Emerging technologies, Labor, Labor markets, Technology.
Keywords included in the source: Africa, Automation, Education, Emerging technologies, employment characteristic, Europe, Future of Work, Global, job happiness, Labor markets, middle-age worker, more-on-the job training, Reskilling, Retraining, Robotization, worker, WP.

Source: IMF Working Papers, "Automation, Skills and the Future of Work: What do Workers Think?", December 20, 2019.