Digitalization and Its Implications on Unemployment

In recent decades, digitalization has reshaped the global economy, altering how businesses operate and redefining labor market requirements, thus bringing numerous economic changes. In the Romanian context, it can be observed that technological advancements and automation have led to a decline in demand for certain traditional occupations but have opened up new employment opportunities in fields such as information technology and digital commerce. Consequently, the processes improved through digitalization have introduced numerous changes in the economy. This paper aims to analyze the extent to which technological evolution has influenced the unemployment rate in Romania during the period 2014-2023, through a statistical analysis that particularly highlights economic changes and a thorough review of the relevant literature. The research uses a mixed methodology, combining the review of the literature with data analysis, extracted from the Tempo Online database of the National Institute of Statistics and EUROSTAT. The results show that with technological advancements and process automation, new opportunities emerged in IT and other sectors, resulting in a general decrease in unemployment. The main research question is: What are the digital implications on the unemployment rate in Romania between 2014 and 2023? Starting from this, the research hypothesis is obtained, respectively: fixed broadband internet traffic rate had a significant impact on unemployment in Romania, causing an increase during periods of economic transition and a decrease during the expansion of digital technologies. During the research, the hypothesis will be verified, and the conclusions will explain the reasons by which it is confirmed or denied.