Digital skills play a crucial role in prolonging women’s working lives, especially those with a high level of education and those working on their own, according to a recent study by the EU-funded WeLaR project. Looking at the impact of digitalisation andautomation on the labour market, the researchers sought to understand whether these technological developments were pushing older workers into early retirement.
The results show that advanced digital skills are a significant asset for women, reducing their propensity to take early retirement. Thuc Uyen Nguyen-Thi, co-author of the study and researcher at the Luxembourg Institute for Socio-Economic Research, points out that these skills help older workers to remain competitive and confident in the face of new technologies.
The study did not find a direct link between technological progress and early retirement, but it highlights theimportance of digital skills for some groups. In particular, women with advanced digital skills and university degrees tend to prolong their careers, unlike those in non-routine manual jobs where technology plays a lesser role.
The researchers also found an interesting trend among male civil servants: Those with high digital skills are more likely to leave the labour market earlier, a trend not observed among their female counterparts. This difference underlines the importance of the employment context and characteristics in the decision to take early retirement.
Mikkel Barslund, co-author of the study andhopefully of the research group at HIVA KU Leuven, argues that investing in digital literacy and skills development could provide older workers with the necessary tools to adapt to an increasingly digital workplace. By developing these skills, societies could better cope with demographic and technological challenges, reducing premature exits from the labour market.
This study suggests that targeted initiatives to improve the digital skills of older workers could have positive effects on their retention in employment, thus contributing to a more effective management of demographic and technological developments.