Labour Market Under the Digital and Green Transition: New Challenges and Opportunities

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Pages: 62-68

Abstract:

This article analyses how the labour market is being reshaped by the simultaneous dig ital and green transition in the European Union, with additional attention to Bulgaria as a case of uneven adaptation capacity. Its core argument is that the twin transition should not be interpreted only in terms of aggregate job creation or job destruction. Rather, it represents a structural transfor mation that changes tasks, qualification profiles, sectoral employment patterns and the institutional conditions of employability. The paper combines selected official indicators from Eurostat, Cedefop and OECD with findings from the literature on automation, skill-biased technological change, green jobs and just transition. The empirical evidence points in two directions at once. On the one hand, employment in the environmental economy has expanded markedly in the EU. On the other hand, deficits in digital competences, labour shortages in transition-relevant activities and uneven region al and national starting positions indicate that adaptation remains incomplete. The Bulgarian case illustrates this asymmetry through low levels of basic digital skills, demographic constraints and sectoral restructuring pressures. The article concludes that the key challenge is not technological or environmental change itself, but the unequal ability of workers, firms, education systems and public institutions to respond to it. At the same time, the twin transition creates significant opportunities for higher-quality employment, hybrid occupational profiles and stronger links between education, innovation, and employment policy.

Keywords:

labour market; digital transition; green transition; skills; green jobs; employability; la bour-market policy.

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