Impact of digital transformation on the European Union's labour market

Abstract

The impact of digital transformation on the European labour market is currently one of the most widely discussed topics in labour economics. According to the research outcomes, 47% of jobs are likely to be automated in the EU in the forthcoming years. Moreover, vast application of artificial intelligence technologies in customer service and analytics leads to conclusion that the impact of digitalization will reach far beyond industrial sector and is likely to affect vast majority of EU labour force. The aim of this paper is to identify the potential consequences of the digitalization for the European Union’s labour market in the 21st century. To this end, the scale of potential changes on the labour market will be assessed in the light of emergence and sunsetting of certain professions, as well as changing requirements in terms of employees’ skills and competences. The chapter will also discuss the issue of increasing social polarization in the European Union, which is the consequence of the rapid digitalization of European economies. Also, institutional aspects of the digitalization’s impact on labour market will be analysed, to understand if those changes require actions from the EU policymakers.