The Silver Innovation. Older Workers’ Characteristics, and Digitalisation of the Economy

The current trends in the ageing of the workforce, which are only in part counterbalanced by immigration flows, risk exposing European enterprises to a widespread situation of skills shortage, together with the loss of a huge wealth of knowledge and experience, as a consequence of baby boomers’ retirement. In this context, the automation/digitalisation of production represents one of the main tools in the hands of advanced economies and organisations to react to the shrinking of the labour force, while boosting productivity, and containing costs. The paper attempts to provide an initial framing of the problematic relationship between digital innovation and employability of older workers. The discussion will offer a possible interpretation of ongoing transformations, as well as a provisional explanation of the current situation in Italy. The contribution will summarise the most important demographic transformations that affected the labour market during these years, in the light of the (potentially) disruptive spread of digital technologies. The topic of the digital evolution of the content of job tasks, and its influence on training needs will be addressed. Reflections concerning the relationship between the adoption of technological innovations, and the quality of human capital will be presented, and some hypotheses concerning the recent evolution of employers’ attitudes towards older workers will be suggested with a view to facing the ongoing technological innovation.