Many studies have focused on estimating the impact of automation on work around the world with results ranging widely. Despite the disagreement about the level of impact that automation will have, experts agree that new technologies tend to be applied to every economic sector, thus impacting work regardless of substituting or complementing it. The purpose of this study is to move on from the discussion about the size of the impact of automation to understanding the main social impacts that automation will cause and what actions should be taken to deal with them. For this purpose, we reviewed literature about technological unemployment found in Scopus and Web of Science published since 2000, presenting an academic view of the actions necessary to deal with the social impact of automation. Our results summarize causes, consequences, and solutions for the technological unemployment found in the literature. We also found that the literature is mainly concentrated on the areas of economy, sociology, and philosophy, with the authors situated in developed economies such as the USA, Europe, and New Zealand. Finally, we present the research agenda proposed by the reviewed papers that could motivate new research on the subject.

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PurposeBrazil is struggling as the unemployment rate is 12.4% and nearly 13m people are unemployed. The fourth Industrial Revolution is advancing, and the country needs to consider how it will impact the labor market. This work explores the impact of automation on the Brazilian workforce to supply decision-makers with information about the subject.Design/methodology/approachThe authors converted the probability of computerization from the seminal work of Frey and Osborne to each of the more than 2,500 occupations in Brazil. They then crossed the automation probability with socioeconomic information about workers and companies available in the Brazilian Ministry of Labor Database.FindingsIn total, 60% of employment in Brazil is expected to be highly impacted by automation in the coming decades, with eight out of the ten occupations with the biggest workforce being highly automatable. Automation probability decreases as workers' education level increases, with the most significant difference between workers with higher education and those without it. The results show other inequalities in the impact of automation: the higher the wage, the lower the automation probability of occupations; the bigger the company, the lower the automation index; and workers from 16 to 24 years old have considerably higher chances of being automated.Originality/valueThis work is the first to study, in the context of the fourth Industrial Revolution, the impact of automation in Brazil with a socioeconomic analysis.

Work has been continuously changing throughout history. The most severe changes to work occurred because of the industrial revolutions, and we are living in one of these moments. To allow us to address these changes as early as possible, mitigating important problems before they occur, we need to explore the future of work. As such, our purpose in this paper is to discuss the main global trends and provide a likely scenario for work in 2050 that takes into consideration the recent changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was performed by thirteen researchers with different backgrounds divided into five topics that were analyzed individually using four future studies methods: Bibliometrics, Brainstorming, Futures Wheel, and Scenarios. As the study was done before COVID-19, seven researchers of the original group later updated the most likely scenario with new Bibliometrics and Brainstorming. Our findings include that computerization advances will further reduce the demand for low-skill and low-wage jobs; non-standard employment tends to be better regulated; new technologies will allow a transition to a personalized education process; workers will receive knowledge-intensive training, making them more adaptable to new types of jobs; self-employment and entrepreneurship will grow in the global labor market; and universal basic income would not reach its full potential, but income transfer programs will be implemented for the most vulnerable population. Finally, we highlight that this study explores the future of work in 2050 while considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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