ICT in society

Draft

ICT affects many aspects of society. This piece should become an overview article at some point - Daniel K. Schneider 12:41, 27 October 2009 (UTC).

Definition of ICT skills

Van Welsum and Vickery (2005:6) define three categories of ICT skills:

1. ICT specialists, who have the ability to develop, operate and maintain ICT systems. ICTs constitute the main part of their job â they develop and put in place the ICT tools for others.
2. Advanced users: competent users of advanced, and often sector-specific, software tools. ICTs are not the main job but a tool.
3. Basic users: competent users of generic tools (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) needed for the information society, e-government and working life. Here too, ICTs are a tool, not the main job.

According to Van Welsum and Wickery, Peneder (2003) divides ICT using industries up into four categories: (i) IT producer - services, (ii) IT producer - manufacturing, (iii) dynamic IT users with a high and growing IT labour intensity, and (iv) other IT user industries.

ICT and ICT-related employment

According to OECD:

• The share of ICT specialists employment in business in most developed countries in 2006 varies between 4% and 10%. The EU15 aggregate was 2.61% in 1995 and 3.06% in 2007. (ICT occupation, narrow definition, retrieved 12:41, 27 October 2009 (UTC)).
• The share of ICT-related jobs in the total economy of developed countries is much higher. In 2007, it varies between 20 and 30%. The EU15 aggregate was 20.62% in 1995 and 22.04% in 2007. (ICT-related occupations in selected countries, broad definition).

These ICT-related data are estimates. The choice of occupations to be included was based on an assessment of the degree to which workers are expected to use ICTs for their own output/production (Van Welsum and Vickery, 2005:6). “It was found that the narrow measure of ICT specialists followed a similar pattern across countries (EU15, United States, Canada and Australia), but that the trends for broad measure of ICT-intensive users and specialists diverged. In particular, the share of broad ICTskilled employment is increasing in the EU15, but decreasing in the United States, Canada and Australia. The relatively recent phenomenon of the offshoring of IT-related and backoffice activities could be an explanatory factor, as could diverging trends in technology adoption and integration reducing employment of some ICT-intensive using occupations.” (Van Welsum and Wickery, 2005:19). This study also pointed out that ICT-skilled employment differs a lot between different economic sectors. E.g. financial intermediation services, research and development have a very large share of ICT-related employment, whereas personal services tend to have a low share.

ICT producing industries are:

Pilat and Lee (2001) defined the following ICT using industries:

• Manufacturing:
  • Printing and publishing
  • Electronic equipment
  • Machinery and equipment
• Services:
  • Communications
  • Whole sale and retail trade
  • Finance
  • Insurance
  • Business services

Links

• OECD Key ICT Indicators
• ICT Skills and Employment

• ISCO - International Standard Classification of Occupations.

Bibliography

• European e-Skills Forum (2004), Synthesis Report, available at http://www.eskills2004.org

• Lavoie, M., and Roy, R. (1998), Employment in the knowledge-based economy: A growth accounting exercise for Canadaâ, R98-8E, Human Resource Development Canada, Applied Research Branch, June 1998.

• Lemaître, G. (2002), Measures of skill from Labour Force Studies â An assessment, OECD, Secretariat Working Document.

• Millar, J., (2001), Skills and employment research â Conceptual framework and methodology, STAR Issue Report 10, http://www.databank.it/star/list_issue/e.html.

• Van Welsum, D. and G. Vickery (2005), “New Perspectives on ICT Skills and Employment”, DSTI Information Economy Working Paper, DSTI/ICCP/IE(2004)10/FINAL, OECD, Paris; available at: www.oecd.org/sti/ICT-employment

• OECD (2004). Information Technology Outlook 2004, OECD, Paris.

• OECD (2008). Information Technology Outlook 2008, OECD, Paris.

• Peneder, M. (2003), The employment of IT personnelâ, National Institute Economic Review, No. 184, April 2003.

• Pilat, D., and Lee, F. C. (2001), âProductivity growth in ICT-producing and ICT-using industries: A source of growth differentials in the OECD?, STI Working Papers 2001/4, DSTI/DOC(2001)4, Paris.)