The Effect of New Technologies on Workers, Jobs, and Skills - Michele Battisti, Christian Dustmann, Uta Schönberg

The Effect of New Technologies on Workers, Jobs, and Skills Michele Battisti, Christian Dustmann, Uta Schönberg Technological and organizational change (T&O) is seen as one of the most important factors driving the decline in the employment share of routine jobs; that is, jobs that are predominantly repetitive and prescriptive in the tasks required. [...] Most of the decline in routine employment takes place within firms The authors find that the decline in the employment share of routine jobs in the aggregate economy previously documented in the literature primarily occurs within firms, rather than through lower employment growth of routine-intensive firms. [...] Moreover, BDS also identify more frequent upskilling of workers in response to T&O in firms that are part of the employer association, and thus recognize unions (in Germany, only firms that are members of the employer association are required to implement union wages). [...] 2 Implications and Conclusions In line with the hypothesis that technological change is routine-biased, BDS show that firms that implement T&O reduce the share of their workers in routine jobs. [...] However – and in contrast with the common view, driven mostly by US-based research, that new technologies and accompanying organizational restructuring leads to non-employment or a deterioration in job quality for a large fraction of the workforce – BDS’s findings suggest that (at least in Germany and with the exception of older workers) workers holding routine jobs prior to T&O implementation do.