The wave of digital-industrial innovation which begins to disrupt vast sectors of the global economy has fueled fear of a potential adverse impact on jobs and wages. This paper argues that digitalindustrial innovations make human capital more important than ever and the focus needs to shift to the complementarity between new technologies and human abilities. In particular, more effort should be devoted to (i) understanding what new skills will be needed, and how existing jobs will change; (ii) upgrading education and professional training schemes; (iii) reforming labor market institutions to support a future where a larger share of workers will change jobs and employers more frequently; (iv) reforming social benefits systems and bolstering social safety nets to smooth the economic transition and cushion the impact on the worst-affected workers. This paper presents an analysis of the challenges, addresses the key areas of action, and puts forward specific proposals, including policy actions, industry initiatives, and further research projects. The authors argue that the G20 could and should champion a comprehensive approach to leverage digital-industrial innovations for faster job creation and growth, with initiatives to re-align demand and supply of skills, labor market reforms, redesigned social safety nets, measures to promote digital innovation and facilitate the adoption of skills-augmenting technologies, and strengthened private sector training programs. CitationMarco Annunziata and Hendrik Bourgeois (2018). The future of work: how G20 countries can leverage digital-industrial innovations into stronger high-quality jobs growth.

This article focuses on the transformation and dimming lines between digital and physical worlds. Industrial Internet tools and applications also help people collaborate in a faster and smarter way – making jobs not just more efficient but more rewarding. Technological progress and economic growth are contributing to a seismic shift in the role that human beings play in the production process. Technological progress, notably in high-performance computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence, is extending the range of tasks that machines can perform better than humans can. The Future of Work is being shaped by a profound transformation, driven by the meshing of the digital and the physical worlds, the emergence of new design and production techniques, and a seismic shift in the role that human beings play in the production process. Technological progress is expected to push a growing share of the workforce toward creativity and entrepreneurship, where humans have a clear comparative advantage over machines.

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