Technology and the Demand for Skilled Workers

A staff research paper by Craig de Laine, Partrick Laplagne and Susan Stone on The Increasing Demand for Skilled Workers in Australia: The Role of Technical Change examines how technological change has affected the demand for skilled workers.

Over the past twenty years, there has been a shift toward employment of skilled workers in Australia, as well as in many other industrialised economies.

While it has sometimes been argued that the trend toward skilled workers is due to increased trade with low wage countries, the paper shows other factors are at work. Changing employment patterns are more closely associated with a pull toward skilled workers, rather than a push away from lower skilled workers. The paper emphasises the role technology has played in shaping this demand.

The staff paper also finds that the role of technology appears to have increased since the mid 1980's, coinciding with a period of increased microeconomic reform.