Automation Will Set Occupational Mobility Free: Structural Changes in the Occupation Network

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lee, Soohyoung, Jeong, Dawoon, Lee, Jeong-Dong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Lee, Soohyoung
Jeong, Dawoon
Lee, Jeong-Dong
author_facet Lee, Soohyoung
Jeong, Dawoon
Lee, Jeong-Dong
contents Occupational mobility is an emergent strategy to cope with technological unemployment by facilitating efficient labor redeployment. However, previous studies analyzing networks show that the boundaries to smooth mobility are constrained by a fragmented structure in the occupation network. In this study, positing that this structure will significantly change due to automation, we propose the skill automation view, which asserts that automation substitutes for skills, not for occupations, and simulate a scenario of skill automation drawing on percolation theory. We sequentially remove skills from the occupation-skill bipartite network and investigate the structural changes in the projected occupation network. The results show that the accumulation of small changes (the emergence of bridges between occupations due to skill automation) triggers significant structural changes in the occupation network. The structural changes accelerate as the components integrate into a new giant component. This result suggests that automation mitigates the bottlenecks to smooth occupational mobility.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_03605
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Automation Will Set Occupational Mobility Free: Structural Changes in the Occupation Network
Lee, Soohyoung
Jeong, Dawoon
Lee, Jeong-Dong
Physics and Society
Occupational mobility is an emergent strategy to cope with technological unemployment by facilitating efficient labor redeployment. However, previous studies analyzing networks show that the boundaries to smooth mobility are constrained by a fragmented structure in the occupation network. In this study, positing that this structure will significantly change due to automation, we propose the skill automation view, which asserts that automation substitutes for skills, not for occupations, and simulate a scenario of skill automation drawing on percolation theory. We sequentially remove skills from the occupation-skill bipartite network and investigate the structural changes in the projected occupation network. The results show that the accumulation of small changes (the emergence of bridges between occupations due to skill automation) triggers significant structural changes in the occupation network. The structural changes accelerate as the components integrate into a new giant component. This result suggests that automation mitigates the bottlenecks to smooth occupational mobility.
title Automation Will Set Occupational Mobility Free: Structural Changes in the Occupation Network
topic Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.03605