Automation and Employment of Workers with Different Abilities

This study explores automation and employment in a task-based model. Each worker has her own likelihood of job mismatch, represented as her individual mismatch probability (IMP). Her IMP depends on the level of automation and her ability, represented as the number of her unsuitable tasks. The level of automation never affects the mean of the IMPs for all workers but affects the variance of their IMPs. The difference in their IMPs caused by their abilities is intensified by automation. Under a high level of automation, a large portion of unemployment comprises long-term unemployment due to low-ability workers having large IMPs