ICTs and employment: The problem of job quality

Abstract

Be it on work intensity, autonomy, career opportunities or any other aspect of job quality - current views about the impact of ICTs are polarized between optimism and pessimism. Yet no particular outcome is inevitable. What happens in practice, the authors argue, will reflect political choices made as much by omission as by commission. Their extensively referenced study investigates ICT-driven changes in organizational forms, employment relations and protection, working time and autonomy, skills, work organization and job prospects. While such changes will not automatically translate into higher job quality, an overhaul of labour market institutions would help to ensure they do.