Easing job jitters in the digital revolution

The world's fourth industrial revolution is ushering in big shifts in the workplace. Professor Steven Dhondt has a reassurance of sorts for people in the EU worried about losing their jobs to automation: relax. Dhondt, an expert in work and organisational change at the Catholic University Leuven in Belgium, has studied the impact of technology on jobs for the past four decades. Fresh from leading an EU research project on the issue, he stresses opportunities rather than threats. 'We need to develop new business practices and welfare support but, with the right vision, we shouldn't see technology as a threat,' Dhondt said.