Abstract

We analyze the relationship between advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), as a main feature of the Industry 4.0 paradigm, and the demand for tasks and skills in the local labour market areas (LLMAs) of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. We merge three data sources and we run a cluster analysis pooling LLMAs by their relative share of AMT, manufacturing specialization, sectoral diversification, trade openness, and entrepreneurship level. The results show that the cluster with a high presence of AMT in 2004-09 and a high manufacturing specialization is the only one where the relative demand for non-routine tasks and advanced skills increased between 2011 and 2016