HUMAN CAPITAL The polarisation of the labour market entails an increase in labour productivity, as the ratio of highly qualified and productive labourers rises. Workers performing routine tasks often change occupations when companies replace them with ICT, and therefore the total number of employees does not necessarily decline, but primarily the composition of the workforce changes.
Box 5-3: Changing employees, changing workplaces Skills related to changing within and between jobs as well as the ability to adapt and learn are expected to become more valuable in the future. According to The Future of Jobs Report 2018 of the World Economic Forum, at present the three most important skills expected of employees are analytical thinking and innovation, complex problem-solving skills and critical thinking and analysis. In addition, the significance of active learning and the skills that allow it, as well as importance of creativity, originality and initiative is increasing. Digitalisation and robotisation play the strongest role in the fact that manual skills, persistence, precision and memory skills will lose some of their importance as the above are gaining ground. Not only are the expectations of employees changing, but – at least at the same pace – also those of employers. Those who are able to perform complex and high-standard or extremely creative work have high expectations towards their workplace as well. With the entry of Generation Z onto the labour market, employees’ attitude to work and their expectations are also changing gradually. The members of Generation Z are digital natives (since the mid-1990s, already born in the age of digitalisation). They usually spend more time in education than the previous generations, and they are described as inventive and strongly practical. Special characteristic features of Generation Z include freedom, innovation, speed, integration and high spirits. As a result of these characteristics, one of this generation’s main attitudes to work is ‘zapping’, so job hopping is natural for them (Ferincz – Szabó, 2012). The tight labour market typical of the majority of developed countries and Hungary as well help the members of Generation Z to change jobs easily. With the appearance of Generation Z on the labour market the quality of the working environment becomes more important in retaining the workforce. In addition, the need to treat the occupational impacts (e.g. techno stress, burning out) originating from information overload is increasing. In Hungary, this purpose is served by the National Occupational Safety and Health Policy 2016–2022 (2016).
5.3 The role of health status 5.3.1 IMPACT OF HEALTH STATUS ON THE ECONOMY Health status is an area where the interests of individuals, families, economic agents and the society as a whole coincide: everyone would like to live as long as possible and as healthily as possible. According to Hungary’s Fundamental Law, ‘everyone shall have the right to physical and mental health’, which Hungary facilitates, inter alia, ‘by organising healthcare provision, by supporting sports and regular physical exercise’.60
The health status of the population has a significant impact on both the quantity and quality of labour available in the economy. Similarly to the knowledge obtained during education, health status is part of the human capital stock that decisively determines the extent of economic growth. Health status has a major impact on labour market participation as well (and thus on the amount of workforce) and on productivity. Therefore, improving the health status of the population, i.e. providing them the possibility of a longer, healthily spent and active life, contributes to economic growth.61 Depending on the degree of the deterioration in health condition, an individual’s labour market participation may become limited at different levels. As a result of an illness or accident that involves more minor symptoms, the individual is only missing from the labour market for a shorter period of
The Fundamental Law of Hungary (2011) European Commission (2013)
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GROWTH REPORT • 2018
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