CHANGING JOBS AND WORKERS

Changing Jobs and Migrant Workers: The Case of Europe Gudrun Biffl and Thomas Liebig1

Introduction

This paper focuses on the changing world of work and migrant workers in the European Union. Rapid technological progress, globalization, increasing European integration, ageing and migration have changed the landscape of work and the composition of the workforce by age, gender, education, occupation and ethnic-cultural background. The world of work has been transformed by massive innovation in information and communication technologies, the introduction of robots, digital technologies and artificial intelligence. All these components of technological progress interact and result in fast industrial restructuring. Accordingly, technological as well as structural and process-related changes characterize the digital economy. (Arntz et al., 2016) As machines increasingly substitute routine jobs, manufacturing employment declines. At the same time jobs are created in the context of digitization and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), above all at the higher end of the skills segment, often at the cost of low-skilled workers, particularly migrants.

Economic and workplace restructuring is linked with a rise in atypical employment, away from full-time open-ended employment to temporary and contract jobs. In addition, job polarization occurs as demand for routine work declines and middle-income groups are hollowed out. Also, the traditional distinction between different forms of employment is becoming blurred with the platform economy entering the scene of work, testing the capacity of social welfare systems to cover all workers.

The demographic and skills composition of the workforce is undergoing rapid change with migration playing an ever-increasing role. The latter is largely the outcome of rising intra-EU mobility as well as significant inflows of third-country workers and their families, and refugees from all corners of the world have also contributed.

The changing landscape of work and workers represents a challenge for policy makers as the process of restructuring knows winners and losers. In order to ensure a competitive, inclusive and sustainable socio-economic environment, measures are taken to promote the adaptability of the workforce and to strengthen social cohesion.

Changing Jobs and the role of migrants

ICT developments, digitalization and artificial intelligence are generating an economic transformation that affects all industries on a scale, scope and complexity that may only be likened to the impact of the steam engine during the first industrial revolution. The transformations promote the growth of services rather than manufacturing. It can be taken from Figure 1 that between 2000 and 2015 the employment structure by industry and skills has shifted towards science and highly skilled professionals on the one hand and to labor intensive occupations that do not lend themselves easily to technologically induced productivity increases on the other. The latter is reinforced by demographic ageing and the concomitant increasing demand for health and care services.

Between 2000 and 2015, total employment in the EU28 has increased by 6.7% (+14.5 million) to 229.3 million. This substantial employment growth is entirely due to services growth, with an increase of 18.8% (+26.1 million) to 164.9 million workers in 2015. In contrast, employment in manufacturing declined by 15.7% (-5.9 million) to 31.8 million workers.