Mind the gap: The role of workers’ automation perceptions for the automation training gap

Abstract

Technological advancements in automation are transforming job tasks and skill demands, raising concerns about the adaptability of the workforce. While reskilling and upskilling are widely recommended for workers in high-risk occupations, empirical research consistently finds an “automation training gap”: workers in occupations classified by experts as highly susceptible to automation participate in less training than workers in lower-risk occupations. Existing studies have primarily focused on employer-side explanations, but the role of workers’ own perceptions has received less attention. Using representative survey data for the Dutch workforce matched to occupational OECD automation risk indicators, we examine whether self-assessed job automation risk is associated with training participation and helps explaining the automation training gap. Our findings show that workers who perceive high automation risk have a 7 percentage-point higher probability of participating in training. Moreover, the negative association between expert-assessed automation risk and training is significantly attenuated when workers perceive their own job to be at risk. We also find that lower rates of self-initiated training among workers who do not perceive automation risk contribute to the overall gap. These results suggest that worker perceptions play a critical role in human capital investment decisions under automation risk. Policies aimed at increasing awareness of task-based technological vulnerability may enhance training participation and help mitigate skill mismatches in the evolving labor market.