Industry 4.0 and the Future of Employment

Industrial revolutions have profoundly affected working life and the meaning of work, creating a continuous change and transformation from past to present. Today, these revolutions are inevitable and the meaning of work is constantly changing. The most important determinants of working life are the changing economic policies, political events and industrial revolutions since 1800s. The Industrial Revolution in the UK in the 1800s brought significant changes in the meaning of work. Since then, there have been four more major revolutions, and in each revolution the effects of mechanisation, globalisation, digitalisation and flexibility have been felt significantly. The first three industrial revolutions facilitated the mechanisation of production, the use of electricity and internet connectivity. However, since the 1970s, with the dominance of neoliberal policies in economies, competition has increased with the free market system and customer demands have become more complex. In order to survive in this competitive environment, companies needed flexibility and speed, and they have achieved this with the concept of ‘internet of things’, where all objects interact over the internet. Moreover, today there is a global transition to Industry 4.0, which is dominated by cyber systems and analytics. While Industry 4.0 causes significant changes in production processes with the combination of technologies such as automation, data analytics and artificial intelligence, the impact of these changes on social sciences is increasing. Analysing these impacts from a social science perspective plays an important role in understanding how society reacts to these technological developments and strategically determining how to adapt to these changes. Overall, Industry 4.0 will lead to changes in the ways of working and managing work and will require upskilling of the labour force. Due to these expected impacts, the effects of Industry 4.0 on employment in the future is an issue that needs to be analysed now. In this study, with this framework, the possible positive and negative effects of Industry 4.0 on employment will be analysed.Keywords: Industry 4.0, future of work, globalization