Technological change, employment, and sustainability

It seems safe to say that in the past technological change created more jobs in total than it destroyed. That this was true in the past does not mean it will be true in the future. As advanced industrial economies struggle with jobless growth, tower-income countries will have to create new jobs in very large numbers. With technology, in all its forms, reducing the direct labor content of production in almost all sectors, it is not clear that there will be enough work either the developed or the developing countries. Any transition to sustainable development requires that most people in most places achieve levels of economic security they deem adequate. Thus, creating decent jobs by the hundreds of millions poses a fundamental bottleneck to sustainability. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.