The 21st century has already brought remarkable technological achievements. The leading corporations of the digital age — including YouTube, Facebook and eBay — barely existed only a decade ago. The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, the year Skype was first released. The first iPhone was launched in 2007 and in 2010 Google announced their first fully autonomous car. Yet, the benefits of these developments have not been widely shared.

Real median wages have stagnated in about half of all OECD countries since 2000, and have fallen even further behind growth in productivity. Between 1980 and 2000, each pound of UK gross domestic product (GDP) growth, for example, was accompanied by around 90 pence of median wage growth. Over the period 2000 to 2007, the equivalent number was 43 pence.

This report introduces a vision to the future of innovation and employment. While the concern over technological unemployment has so far proven to be exaggerated, the reason why human labour has prevailed relates to its ability to acquire new skills. Yet this will become increasingly challenging as new work requires a higher degree of cognitive abilities. At a time when technological change is happening even faster, a main hurdle for workers to adapt is thus the surging costs of education.