The global divergence in the de-routinisation of jobs

We establish new stylised facts about the global evolution and distribution of routine and non-routine work, relaxing the common assumption that occupations are identical globally. We combine survey data and regression models to predict the country-specific routine-task intensity of occupations in 87 countries employing over 2.5 billion workers, equivalent to 75% of global employment. From 2000 to 2017, the shift away from routine work was much slower in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries, widening gaps in the nature of work. Low– and middle-income countries remained the dominant provider of routine work. Not accounting for differences in occupation-specific job tasks across countries leads to a significant overestimation of the role of non-routine tasks in less developed countries.