Having made the connection between ICTs and income clear, and having explored relationships between ICTs and skills, this section examines the three measures of ICT use and familiarity in relation to other pertinent respondent characteristics; age, gender, and educational attainment are examined.
There is some concern that older workers have fewer ICT skills and that this may result in a deterioration of their position in the labour force (OECD 2004). A ‘generation gap’ with respect to exposure to computers and other ICTs may explain a reduced opportunity to learn ICT skills. Young workers aged 25 and under were significantly more likely to grow up with a computer in the home than those aged 25 and over (DfES 2003). As a result, there are fears of a growing mismatch between the skills of older workers and those skills that are in demand, and concern that a lack of skills may cause a slowdown in the introduction of ICTs in jobs filled by older workers, hurting a company’s productivity growth and competitiveness (OECD 2004). However, to date there has been no firm evidence of such a competitive disadvantage, at least in terms of returns to ICT skills of older workers in the labour market (OECD 2004).
Overall, and consistent with previous research, age exhibited a strong relationship with patterns of ICT use and familiarity. These patterns were generally similar across countries, showing a steady decline with age, particularly for diversity and intensity of Internet use, and use of computers for task-oriented purposes (the latter is shown in Chart 11). Many of these task-oriented purposes are associated with computer use at work, such as writing or editing text, managing accounts or spreadsheets, programming, creating presentations or keeping a schedule or calendar. The drop in these activities was most substantial between the age categories of 46 to 55 and 56 to 65, suggesting that older workers and retired persons may not be performing these tasks regularly.
Young computer users are an interesting focal point because in many ways they represent a group of people with a different outlook on technology. While at different points in time, much of the older population adopted ICTs such as the computer and the Internet and learned to adapt their lives to the use of these technologies, the younger generation has grown up at a time when these technologies were already pervasive. The types of computer and Internet activities performed by the younger generation are particularly distinct from the uses of middle-aged and older individuals.
Chart 11. Use of computers for task-oriented purposes by age group, by country, 2003
Note: Countries are ranked by the index of computer use among the 16 to 25 age group.
Source: Veenhof, Clermont and Sciadas, 2005.