Department of Statistics and Econometrics, National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania.
Department of Economics and Economic Policies, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania.
PLoS One. 2020 Apr 23;15(4):e0232032. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232032. eCollection 2020.
The new technologies, the digitalisation of processes and automation of work will change the manner of doing business, working and living. The effects of digitalisation on the economy, society and quality of life imply significant challenges of the labour market. All the participants will be concerned: authorities, companies and ordinary people. The objective of this research is to analyse the perceptions of the EU citizens about digitalisation and to highlight the differences among specific socio-demographic groups. The analysis is grounded on a composite methodology, comprising several statistical and econometric methods that provide scientific support to achieved conclusions: statistical analysis (with the primary goal to shed light on the EU citizens' perceptions about their digital technology skills), TwoStep Cluster Analysis (TSCA) (with the purpose to identify the 'digital vulnerable groups' and then the 'digital vulnerable countries' in terms of the exposure to digital divide) and logistic regression (with the main aim to quantify the impact of the relevant factors on citizens' perceptions about digitalisation). We identified a group of respondents evaluating themselves as having meagre digital skills, very afraid that robots could steal their jobs and with low usage of the internet. They are elderly, with a low level of education, manual workers or not working, with a relatively low level of income and little Internet use. The originality of our approach is given by the fact that we focused on investigating if digital divide leads to the creation of vulnerable groups (citizens and/or countries) and if there are specific patterns in terms of the perception on being skilled in the use of digital technologies in daily life or at work and of the understanding that robots replace human on the labour market. We aim to find relevant factors for the labour market to assume targeted measures that should be taken for a better match of supply and demand on the labour market and for creating a smart labour market. It is highly needed to increase the people's confidence in their skills level and to make the most of digitalisation of the societies. The results show consistent patterns in term of socio-demographic characteristics and perception towards digitalisation. The latter will have a meaningful impact on the economy and the society in the European Union in the next period. That is why a positive attitude towards digitalisation is essential for transforming this relatively new challenge into an excellent opportunity for the future.
新技术、流程数字化和工作自动化将改变经营、工作和生活方式。数字化对经济、社会和生活质量的影响意味着劳动力市场面临重大挑战。所有参与者都将受到关注：当局、公司和普通民众。本研究的目的是分析欧盟公民对数字化的看法，并突出特定社会人口群体之间的差异。该分析基于一种综合方法，包括几种统计和计量经济学方法，为得出的结论提供科学支持：统计分析（主要目的是阐明欧盟公民对其数字技术技能的看法）、两步聚类分析（TSCA）（目的是确定在面临数字鸿沟方面的“数字弱势群体”和“数字弱势国家”）和逻辑回归（主要目的是量化相关因素对公民对数字化看法的影响）。我们确定了一组受访者，他们认为自己的数字技能很差，非常担心机器人会抢走他们的工作，并且很少使用互联网。他们是老年人，教育程度较低，体力劳动者或不工作，收入相对较低，互联网使用量也较少。我们方法的新颖之处在于，我们专注于调查数字鸿沟是否会导致弱势群体（公民和/或国家）的出现，以及在日常生活或工作中对数字技术使用技能的感知以及对劳动力市场上机器人取代人类的理解方面是否存在特定模式。我们旨在找到劳动力市场的相关因素，以采取有针对性的措施，更好地匹配劳动力市场的供求关系，并创造一个智能劳动力市场。需要提高人们对自身技能水平的信心，并充分利用社会的数字化。结果表明，在社会人口特征和对数字化的看法方面存在一致的模式。后者将对欧盟经济和社会在未来产生重大影响。这就是为什么对数字化采取积极态度对于将这一相对较新的挑战转化为未来的绝佳机会至关重要。
