Is modern technology responsible for jobless recoveries?

"Since the early 1990s, recoveries from recessions in the US have been plagued by weak employment growth. One possible explanation for these "jobless" recoveries is rooted in technological change: middle-skill jobs, often involving routine tasks, are lost during recessions, and the di...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Graetz, Georg, Michaels, Guy
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Bonn 2017
IZA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-776812459409-is-modern-technology-responsib.htm
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author Graetz, Georg
Michaels, Guy
author_facet Graetz, Georg
Michaels, Guy
collection Library items
description "Since the early 1990s, recoveries from recessions in the US have been plagued by weak employment growth. One possible explanation for these "jobless" recoveries is rooted in technological change: middle-skill jobs, often involving routine tasks, are lost during recessions, and the displaced workers take time to transition into other jobs (Jaimovich and Siu, 2014). But technological replacement of middle-skill workers is not unique to the US – it also takes place in other developed countries (Goos, Manning, and Salomons, 2014). So if jobless recoveries in the US are due to technology, we might expect to also see them elsewhere in the developed world. We test this possibility using data on recoveries from 71 recessions in 28 industries and 17 countries from 1970-2011. We find that though GDP recovered more slowly after recent recessions, employment did not. Industries that used more routine tasks, and those more exposed to robotization, did not recently experience slower employment recoveries. Finally, middle-skill employment did not recover more slowly after recent recessions, and this pattern was no different in routine-intensive industries. Taken together, this evidence suggests that technology is not causing jobless recoveries in developed countries outside the US."
format TEXT
geographic USA
id 776812459409_d429e5a0e7b24c85859bd42339b8eb5c
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 776812459409_d429e5a0e7b24c85859bd42339b8eb5c
is_hierarchy_title Is modern technology responsible for jobless recoveries?
language English
physical 21 p.
Digital
publishDate 2017
publisher Bonn
IZA
spellingShingle Graetz, Georg
Michaels, Guy
economic recession
history
skill
technological change
Is modern technology responsible for jobless recoveries?
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=105394692357
title Is modern technology responsible for jobless recoveries?
topic economic recession
history
skill
technological change
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-776812459409-is-modern-technology-responsib.htm