Towards the Definition of an Innovation and Employment Strategy

Urizar, Itziar (2000) Towards the Definition of an Innovation and Employment Strategy. In: UNSPECIFIED, Corfu, Greece.

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Abstract

[Introduction]. The paper addresses the topic of technology and employment. The impact of technological change in the economy and particularly, on employment, is nowadays a very controversial subject. Europe is very concerned about the negative impact of technology on employment. Although it is true that technology may save labour through higher productivity, on the other hand, innovation and the development of new ways of organising production and labour may bring new opportunities of business and self employment. First, we will analysis the impact of technology on employment in Europe, providing different figures that makes it clear that the situation will depend in any case, on industrial or sectoral specialization and the capacity of adaptation of each sector. Secondly, the paper will try to focus on the main changes that technological change is causing in production systems and employment organisation. Some dimensions are analysed like automation, work reorganization, the new division of labour and the new demand of qualifications. Then, the paper considers the role of innovation for creating employment. Innovation may offer a solution to unemployment, in terms of creation of new business and exploitation of emerging niches of market. New businesses can be the result of self employment through "spin-offs" or other initiatives to start new projects taking advantage of previous learning and experience. This will be true under certain circumstances. This leads us to the next aim of the paper. Therefore, the paper finally, pretends to offer some guidelines for the definition of an strategy of innovation and employment.

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