Abstract:

The development of modern technologies leading to an increased digitalization and interconnectedness of production, the growing globalized economies, and the demographic changes that European countries are facing, are creating important challenges for the economic and social sustainability of regions, bearing critical impacts on organizations, individuals, and policy makers. To formulate adequate managerial and policy responses to such challenges, economies need to rely on indicators that allow for assessing the extent of such transformations in the job market and in the demand for professionals and competencies. A key area of analysis is the demand for competencies and the drivers for the attraction and retention of professionals at local level. Among the many determinants that can explain the individual decisions to accept existing jobs offers in each territory (e.g., task characteristics, financial conditions, regional attributes, etc.), the perception about the dynamics and opportunities offered in a region can exert important impacts in professional choices. This study explores the concept of job density and competency demands at local level, developing measurements to support the assessment of the employment and career prospects concentration degree for a territory. The study builds on the analysis of data extracted from online job advertisements to develop indicators that bring together the demand for competencies and socio demographic and economic variables for two Portuguese urban areas acknowledged as territories experiencing a fast-paced digital transformation – Aveiro and Braga. The proposed indicators allow for exploring the potential disparities in access to employment opportunities between the two regions. The analysis offers also timely insights for policy making concerning the identification of priorities for the development of new training and education programs to meet the needs for reskilling and upskilling the workforce for digital transformation. The results suggest a stronger concentration of online advertisements for the region of Aveiro; at the same time, they reveal some similarities across job offers in the two regions where advertisements that require skills and occupations associated with STEM areas predominate. With these results, a portrait of the proposed indicators for 4 months is drawn, discussing its importance for individual decision making, concerning jobs and career development, for companies and policy makers.