Sustainable employment in the age of digitalisation: challenges, obstacles and opportunities

The proposed project is primarily situated in the thematic pillar ‘Federal societal challenges’ and more specifically in the focus ‘changing nature of work in the digital era’. However, it also aims to tackle aspects of ‘the impact of the digital revolution on a number of federal policies’ and aspects of ‘discrimination, poverty and social inclusion’.

Objectives

The central objective of this project is to assess the potential for sustainable employment in the digital area, by identifying challenges, obstacles and opportunities in growing and changing labour market niches – with special attention for inspiring policy answers aimed at optimizing opportunities and limiting vulnerability.

The notion of sustainable employment is key in our research approach. Sustainable employment adds a longitudinal dimension to the notion of ‘workability’ and can be described as “achieving living and working conditions that support people in engaging and remaining in work throughout an extended working life” (EUROFOUND). Sustainability in this sense includes ‘healthy working conditions’, but is broader than that and also involves employment that guarantees a sustainable income, social protection, opportunities for personal development, innovative behaviour and is compatible with other life spheres. The ideal of sustainable employment can be advanced by innovative new technologies, new organisational models, redesign in work tasks and the development of new types of activities. In contrast, the same evolutions can involve threats to the different aspects of sustainable employment, in particular worker profiles with a less powerful position on the labour market – for reasons of the tradability of their human capital and/or holes in their statutory protection – might face increasing threats. Social policies – among which many belonging to the federal competence level – can play a key role in optimizing opportunities and buffering vulnerability because of evolutions in the new world of work. These policies lay in the field of social protection, labour market regulation and social dialogue, income protection and social inclusion.