Series of Events on the Future of the Labor Market

January 09, 2018

Automating business, industrial and financial activities is increasingly being adopted by companies to reduce costs and improve productivity. Estimates predict that around half of jobs in the US and the EU are at risk due to robotization and/or automation. In addition, demographic transformations, especially population aging and changing lifestyles, require that countries design and implement policies to address the economic, social security, and public health challenges related to the future of their labor force. In this context, Vegard Skirbekk, a professor at the Columbia Aging Center, travelled to Chile to present his extensive research on this topic and to analyze its implications for the country.

In this context, the Santiago Center, in partnership with Universidad Diego Portales (UDP), invited Vegard Skirbekk, an economist, demographer, professor at the Columbia Aging Center and senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, to present and explain his extensive research this topic and analyze its implications for Chile. He visited the country for a week during January to participate in several public events, deliver lectures on this subject and lead workshops targeting UDP graduate students.

During his trip, he participated as keynote speaker in a public seminar entitled “Robotization and the Future of Work”, during which Joseph Ramos, a Columbia alumnus that chairs the National Commission on Productivity, and María Olivia Recart, vice-president  for  Corporate Affairs at BHP Billiton South & North America, commented his data, projections and public policy proposals. You can watch the video of the event in this link

He also spoke in other venues on the future of the labor market in light of demographic and technological changes (see presentation here), taught a course on cognition and on childlessness to students, and led a workshop with local psychologists focusing on psychosocial challenges associated with robotization.

Among the policies he recommended are boosting education and skill levels to match future labor demand; incentivizing better schooling, life-long learning, and healthy lifestyles; promoting policies centered on families to contribute to raise equality and productivity; reducing unhealthy lifestyles, including overweight/obesity; and raising female employment.

To read a brief discussion on relative ageing across countries, that shows that nations that have invested in cognitive skills are more likely to have an effectively younger population also in the longer term, you can access the abstract of a paper co-authored by professor Skirbekk here.