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The Future of Work: Challenges for Job Creation Due to Global Demographic Change and Automation

Author

Listed:
  • Abeliansky, Ana

    (University of Göttingen)

  • Algur, Eda

    (Harvard School of Public Health)

  • Bloom, David E.

    (Harvard School of Public Health)

  • Prettner, Klaus

    (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

Abstract

We explore future job creation needs under conditions of demographic, economic, and technological change. First, we estimate the implications for job creation in 2020–2030 of population growth, changes in labor force participation, and the achievement of plausible target unemployment rates, disaggregated by age and gender. Second, we analyze the job creation needs differentiated by country income group. Finally, we examine how accelerated automation could affect job creation needs over the coming decades. Overall, shifting demographics, changing labor force participation rates, reductions in unemployment to the target levels of 8 percent for youth and 4 percent for adults, and automation combine to require the creation of approximately 340 million jobs in 2020–2030.

Suggested Citation

  • Abeliansky, Ana & Algur, Eda & Bloom, David E. & Prettner, Klaus, 2020. "The Future of Work: Challenges for Job Creation Due to Global Demographic Change and Automation," IZA Discussion Papers 12962, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12962
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Rod Tyers & Yixiao Zhou, 2023. "Automation and inequality with taxes and transfers," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 70(1), pages 68-100, February.
    2. Peralta, Catarina & Gil, Pedro Mazeda, 2025. "Automation, education, and population: Dynamic effects in an OLG growth and fertility model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    3. Yixiao ZHOU & Rod TYERS, 2019. "Implications of Automation for Global Migration," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 19-19, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    4. David E. Bloom & Alex Khoury & Eda Algur & J. P. Sevilla, 2020. "Valuing Productive Non-market Activities of Older Adults in Europe and the US," De Economist, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 153-181, June.
    5. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Prettner, Klaus, 2023. "Automation and population growth: Theory and cross-country evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 345-358.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    demography; labor; unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

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