How Occupations are changing due to Digitality

The way we work is changing in the digital age and through digitality. New tasks and professions are emerging, others are changing radically or disappearing, both simple and complex tasks can be or are being transferred to machines. We are all affected, whether we are reluctant to embrace new technological opportunities or curious to integrate them into our working lives – assuming we have a choice. Whether companies value the needs and skills of the people who work for them and involve them in change processes, or whether they view anonymous employees as labourers who must follow instructions, not only makes a big difference to the acceptance of change in the workplace, but also determines how digital working environments are shaped. And in our society, where younger generations are few in number and career starters generally have many options, the question of how we want to work and where our strengths lie takes on new significance.

Dr Britta Matthes, a sociologist and biologist, is head of the department “Occupations in the Transformation” at the Institute for Employment Research at the Federal Employment Agency. In this episode of Digitalgespräch, the expert explains the mechanisms at work in the transformation of job profiles and labour market structures, and how the digital transformation of the world of work can be researched. She explains the new conditions and requirements that will shape our working lives in the future, how different professional fields are integrating digitality into their processes, whose expertise is important, what hurdles stand in the way and what room for manoeuvre there is. Together with hosts Marlene Görger and Petra Gehring, Matthes discusses the special features of the German labour market in the implementation of digitalisation, what constitutes the core of a profession in the face of constant change, how we as individuals can shape our professional lives – and whether the ideal of working in “one’s” profession all of one’s life is still appropriate.

Further informationen:

To the Job Futuromat of the Institute for Employment Research: https://job-futuromat.iab.de/en/