Online platforms boost labor-market efficiency

This is an age of anxiety about the job-killing effects of automation, with dire headlines warning that the rise of robots will render entire occupational categories obsolete. But this fatalism assumes that we are powerless to harness what we create to improve our lives - and, indeed, our jobs.

Evidence of technology's potential to help resolve our job concerns can be found in online talent platforms.

Online talent platforms can boost labor-market efficiency by aggregating data on candidates and job openings in a broader geographic area, thereby illuminating for workers which positions are open today, as well as the actions they can take to gain more fulfilling work. This dynamic could be especially important in Europe, where employment prospects differ radically across countries (and across regions within countries), and many feel trapped in stagnant local economies. It is not likely that someone will move from Spain to Swaziland, even for a dream job; but that person might accept a better position a few hundred miles away.