Digitalization and the American Workforce

Abstract

So rapid are the developments, in fact, that while the “digitization of everything” has become a hallmark of tech’s promise of individual and business empowerment, it has also begun to prompt anxiety, including among workers who worry about their future in a world of brilliant machines. And yet, for all of that, and despite much evidence that big changes are underway, surprisingly little data exist to track the spread of digital adoption across industries and into workplaces. In the absence of such information, the digitalization trend, as prominent as it is, remains diffuse and hard to pin down. Which is where this report comes in. To help address the shortage of data on the topic, this assessment provides a detailed analysis of changes in the digital content of 545 occupations covering 90 percent of the workforce in all industries since 2001.