TECHNOLOGICAL-CHANGE, EMPLOYMENT, AND SUSTAINABILITY

It seems safe to say that in the past technological change created mor e jobs in total than it destroyed. That this was true in the past does not mean it will be true in the future. As advanced industrial econom ies struggle with jobless growth, tower-income countries will have to create new jobs in very large numbers. With technology, in all its for ms, reducing the direct labor content of production in almost all sect ors, it is not clear that there will be enough work either the develop ed or the developing countries. Any transition to sustainable developm ent requires that most people in most places achieve levels of economi c security they deem adequate. Thus, creating decent jobs by the hundr eds of millions poses a fundamental bottleneck to sustainability. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.