The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the future of work: Could this bring good jobs to Africa?

Louise Fox, Landry Signé
What is it?

After two decades of solid economic growth and improvements in employment opportunities, countries are back on their heels following disruptions in the global economy and the blows to local economies caused by the CoVID-19 global pandemic. Africa’s employment challenge in the post-CoVID-19 era is to return to, and accelerate the previous, and in most countries, successful, trajectory of economic and employment transformation. The question addressed in this paper is to what extent could the suite of new technologies known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) accelerate the transformation by speeding up the creation of new wage jobs in expanding, higher-productivity sectors, leading to a decline in the share of people working informally, and to what extent would youth benefit?

 

HIGHLIGHTS

This publication is part of the multi-donor research initiative: Boosting Decent Employment for Africa's Youth

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