BERLIN, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The process of digitalization threatens to eliminate 3.4 million jobs in Germany within the next five years, the newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ) reports on Friday.
FAZ cited a survey of 500 companies conducted by the German Information Technology Association "Bitkom" as the basis for the dramatic findings. Every fourth company polled indicated that digitalization posed a threat to its very existence.
According to "Bitkom", the process of jobs losses was already well underway. Whereas 200,000 people had been employed in the German communications technology sector as recently as the 1990s, for example, the number was now close to 20,000.
"We have lost 90 percent of jobs in this sector in only 15 years", Bitkom president Achim Berg told FAZ. Berg identified banking, insurance, chemistry and pharmaceuticals as the next industries in Germany which would experience a similar development. Overall, nearly half of all current jobs would cease to exist within 20 years.
Although several studies have warned against the impact of digitalization and automation on employment, so far little research has been forthcoming which seeks to estimate the number of jobs created by new technologies.
Berg similarly accused the government in Berlin of being inattentive to resulting changes and failing to address topics such the policy implications of artificial intelligence (AI). During the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, AI formed the subject of several high-level discussions between policymakers.
As a potential solution to widespread job losses, the Bitkom president suggested introducing a universal basic income, an idea first proposed by the economist Friedrich von Hayek during the 20th century and debated heavily across the world ever since.
"We should try it and see how it works. Will people really spend more of their time with social tasks?" Berg said.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and German Social Democrats (SPD) have vowed to react to digitalization by "shaping it positively for all people" in their recently-signed preliminary coalition agreement. The document identifies this task as a key concern for Germany's next government and calls for further investment in digital technologies as well as the digitalization of administrative infrastructure.
However, concrete steps to avert job losses are absent from the joint policy proposals.
