TASKS VI Conference on the Digital and Ecological Transformation of the Labour Market

How does technological change transform the labour market? Which tasks, skills, and requirements are losing importance and which are becoming more important, especially in the face of the ecological transformation? And which developments will be exacerbated or changed by the COVID-19 pandemic? These and other questions were in the focus of the sixth international TASKS conference, a joint conference by ZEW Mannheim, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).

The labour market undergoes fundamental technological and ecological changes – all this on top of the COVID-19 crisis. Around 50 researchers from all over the world and from various disciplines discussed the impact of these challenges on the job content and skill requirements as well as on workers and establishment. They provided scientific analyses of the future of work and made recommendations for both policy-makers and practitioners. They presented their latest findings and ideas, which provoked lively debates and discussions. The topics ranged from changes in the job content and the impact on workers through the use of robots to international perspectives on technological and environmental change. Three keynote lectures by Professor Francesco Vona, Professor Anna Salomons, and Professor Matias Cortes set important impulses for scientific exchange.

To the in-depth follow-up report in the IAB Forum