Automation and Public Support for Workfare: New Publication by Zhen Im

Automation has permeated workplaces and threatens labour in the production process. Concurrently, European governments have expanded workfare which imposes stringent conditions and sanctions on unemployed workers after the onset of austerity. We explore how automation risk affects workfare support and posit that routine workers may support workfare to assuage their fears of social status decline. Based on European Social Survey data, we find that routine workers support workfare more than non-routine workers, but this relationship is conditional on the extent to which economic hardship has worsened over time. These findings suggest that status threat is an important channel by which automation risk may affect workfare support, but its impact depends on social context, hence yielding country-differences. Worsening economic hardship may exacerbate routine workers’ status decline fears, and intensify their harsh views against unemployed workers. Automation risk may thus have a greater impact on workfare support under such conditions. Policymakers can use these findings to assess how workfare may be publicly received and under various economic conditions. This article was written by Zhen Im (CBS/EGB) and Kathrin Komp-Leukkunen (University of Helsinki / Faculty of Social Sciences).

Link to the paper.