Social sustainability and employment as a challenge of digital transformation: the new sixth digital sector of the economy

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of the digital transformation on employment, starting from the changes that technology is already bringing about in many jobs and professions. To do so, it starts from the basis of the epochal change implied by the new digital era and advanced technologies, under the reference of the historical impact of progress in its process of shifting the workforce from the primary to the secondary sector, with the industrial revolution and now, from the tertiary service sector to a new sixth or digital sector. The new skills framework for jobs and the literature on the impact of digitisation on the jobs of the future are discussed, with reference to the role of the educational model as a vector of sustainability in employment and the opportunity of European funds for training in digital skills in society.