Regional Employment Effects of the Digital Transformation in Austria

The labour-saving element of the deployment of digital technologies is offset by positive demand effects through a reduction in production costs and the creation of many new products. A structured survey of the existing international literature shows predominantly positive net effects of the use of digital technologies on employment. A recent WIFO study examines in detail the employment effects of digitisation for Austria at a spatially differentiated level: according to this study, employment in highly digitised sectors has grown more strongly in all Länder than in other sectors since 2010. Urban regions show locational advantages for highly digitised industries over other regions, which have hardly decreased in the past. The net effects of a higher degree of digitisation of the local economy on overall local employment are also predominantly positive but differ between regions. An improvement in the broadband infrastructure also has measurable positive effects on employment development. However, so far broadband quality has only played a negligible role in the population developments of municipalities.