Digitalization in the German Labor Market: Analyzing Demand for Digital Skills in Job Vacancies. Bertelsmann Stiftung July 2020.

O'Kane, Layla and Narasimhan, Rohit and Nania, Julia and Taska, Bledi (2020) Digitalization in the German Labor Market: Analyzing Demand for Digital Skills in Job Vacancies. Bertelsmann Stiftung July 2020. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The use of digital technologies already has far-reaching effects on the labor market today, and these effects will become even more pronounced in the future. On the bright side, large parts of the scientific community now agree that there will not be a mass displacement of human work by computers and robots. For Germany, it is expected that job gains and losses due to automation will balance out at least until the middle of the next decade. The crucial prerequisite for this, however, is that the workforce keeps pace with digitalization. Developing and using new hardware, software, and algorithms, analyzing big data, automating routine tasks, working remotely, mass customization in industrial production as well as the ethical handling of the new technologies are just a few examples of the substantial change in the demand for skills in the workforce. Some of the existing knowledge and skills are becoming obsolete, while the majority are still required but need to be updated. In addition, completely new skills must be acquired in order to secure a good job with decent pay, regardless of the specific type of labor contract or form of employment.

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