Future of Labour (June 2023)

The study on the future of work was conducted by Kantar Public on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. During the survey period from 13 to 22 June 2023, German-speaking people aged 16 to 67 in Germany, excluding pensioners, were surveyed in online interviews (CAWI) on the following topics: current life and work situation, future expectations, the use of AI and the digitalization of the world of work as well as attitudes towards demographic change and the shortage of skilled workers. The respondents were selected using a quota sample from an online access panel.<br>1. Future: general life satisfaction; satisfaction with selected aspects of life (working conditions, education, qualifications, health situation, professional remuneration, family situation, financial situation); expectations for the future: rather confident vs. rather worried about the private and professional future; rather confident vs. rather worried about the professional future of younger people or the next generation; rather confident vs. rather worried about the future of Germany; confidence vs. concern regarding the competitiveness of the German economy in various areas (digitalization and automation of the working world, climate protection goals of industry, effects of the Ukraine war on the German economy, access to important raw materials such as rare earths or metals, reliable supply of energy, number of qualified specialists, general price development, development of wages and salaries, development of pensions); probability of various future scenarios for Germany in 2030 (Germany is once again the world export champion, unemployment is at an all-time low - full employment prevails in Germany, the energy transition has already created hundreds of thousands of new jobs in German industry, Germany has emerged the strongest in the EU from the crises of the last 15 years, the price crisis has led to the fact The price crisis has meant that politics and business have successfully set the course for the future, citizens can deal with all official matters digitally from home, German industry is much faster than expected in terms of climate targets and is already almost climate-neutral, Germany is the most popular country of immigration for foreign university graduates, the nursing shortage in Germany has been overcome thanks to the immigration of skilled workers).

2. Importance of work: importance of different areas of life (ranking); work to earn money vs. as a vocation; importance of different work characteristics (e.g. job security, adequate income, development prospects and career opportunities, etc.).

3. Professional situation: satisfaction with various aspects of work (job security, pay/income, development/career opportunities, interesting work, sufficient contact with other people, compatibility of family/private life and work. Work climate/ working atmosphere, further training opportunities, social recognition, meaningful and useful work); job satisfaction; expected development of working conditions in own professional field; recognition for own work from the company/ employer, from colleagues, from other people from the work context, from the personal private environment, from society in general and from politics; unemployed people were asked: currently looking for a new job; assessment of chances of finding a new job; pupils, students and trainees were asked: assessment of future career opportunities; reasons for assessing career opportunities as poor (open).

4. AI: use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the world of work rather as an opportunity or rather as a danger; expected effects of AI on working conditions in their own professional field (improvement, deterioration, no effects); opportunities and dangers of digitization, AI and automation based on comparisons (all in all, digitization leads to a greater burden on the environment, as computers, tablets, smartphones and data centers are major power guzzlers vs. All in all, digitalization protects the environment through less mobility and more efficient management, artificial intelligence and digitalization help to reduce the workload and relieve employees of repetitive and monotonous tasks vs. artificial intelligence and digitalization overburden many employees through further work intensification. Stress and burnouts will increasingly be the result, artificial intelligence and digitalization will primarily lead to job losses vs. artificial intelligence and digitalization will create more new, future-proof jobs than old ones will be lost, our economy will benefit greatly from global networking through speed and efficiency gains vs. our economy is threatened by global networking by becoming more susceptible to cyberattacks and hacker attacks, digitalization will lead to new, more flexible working time models and a better work-life balance vs. digitalization will lead to a blurring of boundaries between work and leisure time and thus, above all, to more self-exploitation by employees).

5. Home office: local focus of own work currently, before the corona pandemic and during the corona pandemic (exclusively/ predominantly in the company or from home, at changing work locations (company, at home, mobile from on the road); Agreement with various statements on the topic of working from home (wherever possible, employers should give their employees the opportunity to work from home, working from home leads to a loss of cohesion in the company, working from home enables a better work-life balance, digital communication makes coordination processes more complicated, home office makes an important contribution to climate protection due to fewer journeys to work, home office leads to a mixture of work and leisure time and thus to a greater workload, home office leads to greater job satisfaction and thus to higher productivity, since many professions cannot be carried out in the home office, it would be fairer if everyone had to work outside the home); attitude towards a general 4-day working week (A four-day week for everyone would increase the shortage of skilled workers vs. a four-day week for everyone would increase motivation and therefore productivity).

6. Demographic change: knowledge of the meaning of the term demographic change; expected impact of demographic change on the future of Germany; opinion on the future in Germany based on alternative future scenarios (in the future, poverty in old age will increase noticeably vs. the future generation of pensioners will be wealthier than ever before, in the future, politics and elections will be increasingly determined by older people vs. the influence of the younger generation on politics will become much more important, our social security systems will continue to ensure intergenerational fairness and equalization in the future vs. the distribution conflicts between the younger and older generations will increase noticeably, future generations will have to work longer due to the shortage of skilled workers vs. people will have to work less in the future due to digitalization and automation and will be able to retire earlier).

7. Shortage of skilled workers: shortage of skilled workers in own company; additional personal burden due to shortage of skilled workers; company is doing enough to counteract the shortage of skilled workers; use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the company could compensate for the shortage of skilled workers; evaluation of various measures taken by the federal government to combat the shortage of skilled workers (improvement of training and further education opportunities, increasing the participation of women in the labor market (e.g. by expanding childcare services, more flexible working hours, offers for older skilled workers to stay in work longer, facilitating the immigration of foreign skilled workers); evaluation of the work of the federal government to combat the shortage of skilled workers; attractiveness (reputation in society) of various professions with a shortage of skilled workers (e.g. social pedagogues/educators); evaluation of the work of the federal government to combat the shortage of skilled workers. B. social pedagogue, nursery school teacher, etc.); job recommendation for younger people; own activity in one of the professions mentioned with a shortage of skilled workers.

Demography: sex; age; age in age groups; employment; federal state; region west/east; school education; vocational training; self-placement social class; employment status; occupation differentiated workers, employees, civil servants; industry; household size; number of children under 18 in the household; net household income (grouped); location size; party sympathy; migration background (respondent, one parent or both parents).

Additionally coded were: consecutive interview number; school education head group (low, medium, high); weighting factor.