The Level of Internetization and Restructuring of Employment in the International Perspective at the Beginning of the Millennium

Abstract

This article is devoted to methods of measuring the diversification of occupations and their use in analyzing complicated processes such as the ‘informationalization’ of work and the changes in socio-occupational structures currently being noted. The article’s comparative analyses were based on data from the first edition of the European Social Survey of 2002 and concern 15 selected European countries, including Poland. The following research questions were raised in connection with one aspect of the concept of an information economy: (a) has the percentage of employees engaged in ‘information occupations’ increased with the spread of the internet? (b) does a more computerized society also have a higher percent of information producers among persons who are vocationally active? (c) is the level of occupational diversification connected with the spread of the internet and if so, to what degree? At the end, the authors point to the necessity of giving deeper thought to the idea of the ‘end of work’, which is a kind of reversal of the pro-market logic of developing the labour market and technological unemployment.