What Makes New Work Different from More Work?

David H. Autor, Caroline Chin, Anna Salomons and Bryan Seegmiller

No 12577, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We study the role of expertise in new work - novel occupational roles that emerge as technological and economic conditions evolve - using newly available 1940 and 1950 Census Complete Count files and confidential American Community Survey data from 2011-2023. We show that new work is systematically distinct from simply more work in existing occupations in four respects. First, it attracts workers with distinct characteristics: new work is disproportionately performed by younger and more educated workers, even within detailed occupation-industry cells. Second, new work commands economically significant wage premiums that persist beyond workers' initial entry into new work, consistent with returns to scarce, specialized expertise rather than temporary market disequilibrium. Third, these premiums decline across vintages as expertise diffuses, with `newer' new work commanding larger premiums than older new work. Fourth, the emergence of new work can be traced to specific demand shocks in particular locations and time periods, suggesting that expertise formation responds systematically to economic opportunities. These findings suggest that new work serves as a countervailing force to automation-driven job displacement not merely by creating additional employment, but also by generating new domains of human expertise that command market premiums. This expertise-based mechanism helps explain both the expanding variety of work activities across decades and the historical resilience of the labor share.

Keywords: new work; technological change; occupations; tasks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J11 J23 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12577

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