Abstract:

The purpose of the article is the justification of the idea that the reduction in the length of the working day can contribute to the reduction of unemployment rates while maintaining a normal level of profitability with rising levels of labor productivity. The research methodology, one of the essential aspects published in this article, is materialistic dialectics. The article presents an analysis of the options for using labor savings resulting from the implementation of digital technologies, production automation, its robotization, and reveals the main types of the dynamics of the number of employees within the process of using advanced technologies with a stable and shortened working day. It has been confirmed that the reduction of the working day with an increase in wages helps to stabilize and increase the level of employment. It has been revealed that a decrease in the length of the working day can and should be combined with an increase in the profits of firms provided that labor productivity is increased due to production automation. It has been concluded that there is a possibility of a compromise as a form of resolving the contradiction of the interests of employers and workers in using the obtained labor savings as a result of automation of production and services. A hypothesis is formed which states that the strategy to prevent and reduce unemployment is the reduction of the length of the working day.