Economic Consequences of Artificial Intelligence and Labor Automation: Employment Recovery, Transformation of Labor Markets, and Dynamics of Social Structure in the Context of Digital Transformation

Abstract

Globalization, industrialization, and digitalization have led to structural changes in the economy and labor markets, affecting their internationalization, flexibility, labor mobility, and the emergence of new forms of employment. The purpose of the academic paper is to identify the economic consequences of digital transformation and automation of labor markets in the example of the EU-27 countries for the period 2013-2022. The structural-functional analysis was used in the academic paper to characterize and systematically study the economic consequences of digitalization and automation in the labor markets of the EU-27 countries. The functioning of the labor market in various EU-27 countries in the context of digital transformation is characterized by several features. The EU-27 labor markets are characterized by rapid employment recovery, especially during the pandemic and economic downturn in 2020, and employment revival in 2021-2022. In the Member States, a stable level of employment is generally observed; there is a decrease in the share of people with 0-2, and 3-4 educational attainment levels, while the share of people with 5-8 educational attainment levels is growing, and there is a stable growth in wages and incomes. Changes in the social structure of the employed by vocational and educational levels and qualifications in favor of increasing the importance and role of higher education have been revealed. Changes in forms of employment and the emergence of new forms of employment (sharing of workers and workplaces, temporary management, casual labor, ICT-based mobile work, voucher work, portfolio work, crowd employment, and collaborative work) have been identified.