The changing nature of work- World Development Report -2019

In this report, the World Bank Group presents a research based analysis of technology impact on the changing nature of work, emphasizing the role of learning over schooling, the need for building human capital and the role that governments have to play in renegotiating the social contract. A must read for learners interested in understanding the changing nature of work in the days to come.

Quick summary for AI Socials learners is as follows:

1. Technology advancements over a period of time have created more jobs than they have taken away. I would also add that there are more jobs that exist today than what existed 200 years back, the need is to embrace new age technology, appreciate the inevitable changes in work, prepare and ride the wave of change.

2. Nature of jobs will change and adapting to it will be essential for individual growth. More jobs that never existed earlier like those of app developers, data scientists, AI domain trainers, designers, testers, etc for new age technologies like Artificial Intelligence will get created. Routine, manual jobs with physical involvement, accounting , office support work will get mostly automated and jobs with need for higher cognitive and socio-behavioral skills (I'll add the following examples -healthcare, elderly and child care, managerial , creative and performing arts and those involving customer care) will increase.

3. Investment in human capital will be crucial for an economy.Human capital consists of the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives, enabling them to realize their potential as productive members of society. It has large payoffs for individuals, societies, and countries.

4. Learning is more important than number of years of schooling.For individuals, an additional year of learning generates higher earnings on average. These returns are large in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. However, what children learn matters more than how long they stay in school.

5. Joint effort by governments and individuals towards human capital development is an imperative The human capital project launched by the World Bank is a a program of advocacy, measurement, and analytical work to raise awareness and increase demand for interventions to build human capital. The project has three components:

I. a cross-country metric—the human capital index,

II. a program of measurement and research to inform policy action, and

III. a program of support for country strategies to accelerate investment in human Capital

6. "The human capital index" quantifies the productivity of the next generation of workers in terms of three components:

I. Child Survival-a measure of whether children survive from birth to school age (age5)

II. Quality-adjusted schooling- a measure of expected years of quality-adjusted school, which combines information on the quantity and quality of education

III. Health- two broad measures of health—stunting rates and adult survival rates.

7. Life long learning will be quintessential to gig economy workforce of the future. The days of staying in one job, or with one company, for decades are waning. In the gig economy, workers will likely have many gigs over the course of their careers, which means they will have to be lifelong learners. Jacob Mincer , one of the fathers of labor economics , proved that earnings differentials are influenced by human capital investments that grow over the life cycle, initially in school and later at work. The payoff of such investments can be measured in terms of increased earnings, or “returns,” stemming from an additional year spent in school or work. High-income countries have higher returns to work experience than middle- and low-income countries. Life long learning in the gig economy will be essential for continuous skill updates and to improve ones earning capabilities.

8. Governments have to play a significant role and a new social contract for the future is an imperative

I. Developing economies with more informal jobs (jobs without payslips, social securities etc like gardening, maid services to name a few) should focus on developing a new social contract to bring more and more of these jobs under the cover of social security and wherever possible make them formal. Formal jobs create more learning opportunities.

II. Governments should look to provide a guaranteed social minimum (with social assistance at its core), social insurance, and labor market regulations

III. Empowering women will raise the stock of human capital in the economy

IV. Expanding agricultural productivity in rural areas will provide better work opportunities for the poor

V. Jobs that generate and build skills will prepare workers for the future. Government and public investment in skills is the key to a progressive future.

I wrote the above summary with the intent to reach a much wider audience and to sensitize them of the future that awaits and to help develop a constructive and pragmatic mindset that our global society so clearly needs for the future. I sincerely encourage the readers to find time to go through the detailed report , invest in learning, invest in your future!!

Full Report: The Changing nature of work- World Development Report -2019

Reference: World Bank. 2019. World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1328-3. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO

Disclaimer: The summary presented above is an adaptation of an original work by The World Bank. Views and opinions expressed in the adaptation are the sole responsibility of the author or authors of the adaptation and are not endorsed by the World Bank.