Technological change seems to be increasing the demand for workers that perform non-rutinary tasks, but I would like to go further than this and see if the demand for workers with higher cognitive abilities is also increasing due to technological change. How does this differ between developed and developing countries? And among those that perform manual tasks, is the demand for workers with higher social abilities increasing more, relative to those that do not have these kind of skills, despite they are involved in the same kind of tasks?
Thank you so much Dr. Simandan!!This is quite useful!! I know is a whole new area of knowledge but it would be great to see what happens in developing countries with these topics in relation to income inequality and the labor market.
Technology can also de-skill. The work of Harry Braverman is still relevant here, and there are several articles on de-skilling in the capitalist labour process in the 'Capital & Class' journal in the 1980 (see especially work by Tony Elger). Surely, technology can lead to the demand for higher skills for some categories of workers, but lowers the skill content for others, and yet may also expel groups of workers from the labour process. I think that to assume that there is some linear process of increasing cognitive demands in the workplace due to the imposition of new technology does not capture the full picture. Furthermore, studies of the recuitment process over the last four decades have indicated that it is work attitudes that employers rank as more important than any forms of knowledge or cognitive capacities for many sectors of industry and functions of employment. Obviously, it many well be that cognitive demands are rising in particular occupatiions, sectors of employment or jobs in emerging techologieis. However, it cannot be assumed that there is some general increase in cognitive demands in the workplace.
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