Technological change and employment creative destruction

In a developing country such as India, uncertainty about employment creation adds to the continuing condition of a poor record in the creation of decent jobs. But some of this uncertainty is also due to the projection of technical possibilities as short-term economic trends. This working paper carries forward the conversation on technological change by examining economic trends in the context of developing countries. The paper points out that technological change is not a one-way process as there is not just destruction of some jobs and even professions, but also the creation of new jobs and professions. The paper highlights the necessity of designing policy to deal with some important features of technological change like the inevitable declining employment intensity of production, growing polarization in the job market and time-lags in these processes of re-training and re-employment to avoid widening of inequalities. Above all, the paper stresses on the need for a coherent, universal and portable social security system that could reduce social opposition to technological change.