Technological change is not something that is waiting in the future, crouched away, it is something that we can see and observe empirically in the reality of the Uruguayan economy and the labor market," said Fernando Isabella, director of Planning at the Office of Planning and Budget (OPP).
In this way, Isabella started a debate organized by the Association of Marketing Managers (ADM) called "Impact of technological change on productivity, growth and employment", in which also participated the president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti), Leonardo Loureiro and the president of the Chamber of Digital Economy of Uruguay (CEDU), Guillermo Varela.
For the director of Planning of the OPP, the automation of work "is a reality" and one of the reasons why people lose their jobs in Uruguay.
However, he presented data showing that the period of greatest application of technology in the Uruguayan labor market coincides with one of the most important periods of employment expansion in the country's history.
In this regard, he said that this shows that "technological developments undoubtedly involve risks in terms of employment, but they also involve opportunities".
On the impacts of technological change on employment, Isabella noted that "it is not the first time that the world is facing a period of strong technological transformations". However, she indicated that "much more" progress must be made in improving key aspects such as education.
According to the president of the Cuti, "the big problem" is that it is not possible to measure the consequences of the technological impact on employment because it is not known what will happen.
In addition, he said it is "fundamental" that there is a "strong" change in the education system, as there are currently no people with the tools and knowledge required to work in technological areas.
According to Loureiro, we must begin to train children from school to incorporate technological knowledge. He also warned that if the country does not move forward in education "will pass us the wave" and the "future may become a little black.
In line with this, the CEDU president said that technology "is coming to radically transform" business, industry and employment.
Varela warned that the digital economy will make "drastic changes" in everyday life and gave as an example the financial system that - with the development of technologies such as blockchain - "will be unrecognizable in 10 years".
In relation to the challenges of the labor market, Varela said that there is an "important cultural change" because unlike what happened until a few years ago, nowadays "work is not for life".
In addition, he said that Uruguay must "change the way of approaching studies" and that it is advisable to "learn to learn constantly" since specialized education will be "key" to face the changes.
The head of CEDU was optimistic and commented that in addition to the risks there is an opportunity. "Rarely in the history of civilization are there changes as particular as the ones we are experiencing now, and rarely does an undeveloped country have such a great opportunity to change its conditions. In this game it is being shuffled again and that gives us the good fortune to be able to benefit," he concluded.
Source: El País
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