Technology and jobs: A systematic literature review

Kerstin Hötte, Melline Somers, Angelos Theodorakopoulos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We systematically review the empirical literature on the past four decades
of technological change and its impact on employment, distinguishing be-
tween five broad technology categories (ICT, Robots, Innovation, TFP-style,
Other). We find across studies that the labor displacing effect of technology
appears to be more than offset by compensating mechanisms that create or
reinstate labor. This holds for most technology-types, suggesting that anx-
ieties over widespread technology-driven unemployment lack an empirical
base. Nevertheless, blue-collar workers have been adversely affected by tech-
nological change, and effective up- and reskilling strategies should remain at
the forefront of policy making along targeted support systems.
Original languageEnglish
Article number122750
Number of pages23
JournalTechnological Forecasting and Social Change
Volume194
Early online date26 Jul 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2023

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Funding: The authors acknowledge support from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No. 822330 TECHNEQUALITY.

Keywords

  • Technological Change
  • Labor
  • Employment
  • ICT
  • Robots
  • Innovation

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