The New Skill Divide: Cognitive Growth, Physical Decline, and Flexibility in an Automated World

The New Skill Divide: Cognitive Growth, Physical Decline, and Flexibility in an Automated World | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The New Skill Divide: Cognitive Growth, Physical Decline, and Flexibility in an Automated World Qiguo Gong, Qiang Wang, Wen Zhang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6296044/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We define worker flexibility as the ability to master various low-important skills, or being a “Jack of all trades”. Using data from the U.S. between 2003 and 2019, our empirical analysis reveals that automation increases the requirements for cognitive skills and flexibility while reducing the requirements for physical skills. These findings suggest two future workforce development paths: specializing in advanced cognitive skills or becoming a “Jack of all trades”. However, individuals or companies do not spontaneously increase flexibility; instead, they allocate education and training to enhance cognitive skills. This is because highly flexible workers earn lower wages, which is why such flexibility is not automated—a highly flexible worker costs much less than a flexible machine. Our research reveals the different mechanisms by which automation affects cognitive skills, physical skills, and flexibility, providing insights for individual career development and corporate training programs. Business and commerce/Economics Social science/Economics Exposure to robots Cognitive skill Physical skill Flexible workers Skill divide Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6296044","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":442329191,"identity":"80a42732-1b86-4f80-8bbb-00aecf9bf70f","order_by":0,"name":"Qiguo Gong","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qiguo","middleName":"","lastName":"Gong","suffix":""},{"id":442329192,"identity":"15856a82-ee6f-4dd3-9fcd-e1ff37f268c6","order_by":1,"name":"Qiang Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qiang","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":442329193,"identity":"353379eb-5c9b-4fce-b629-23d9f37008cb","order_by":2,"name":"Wen Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wen","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-24 13:53:33","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6296044/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6296044/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":82539649,"identity":"1b31781f-9708-4ef1-a0ec-c704b6e01cee","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-12 16:23:39","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":553250,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TheNewSkillDivideCognitiveGrowthPhysicalDeclineandFlexibilityinanAutomatedWorldanonymous.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6296044/v1_covered_9ad73678-5898-47d4-8a33-70737260fc48.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The New Skill Divide: Cognitive Growth, Physical Decline, and Flexibility in an Automated World","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Exposure to robots, Cognitive skill, Physical skill, Flexible workers, Skill divide","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6296044/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6296044/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eWe define worker flexibility as the ability to master various low-important skills, or being a \u0026ldquo;Jack of all trades\u0026rdquo;. Using data from the U.S. between 2003 and 2019, our empirical analysis reveals that automation increases the requirements for cognitive skills and flexibility while reducing the requirements for physical skills. These findings suggest two future workforce development paths: specializing in advanced cognitive skills or becoming a \u0026ldquo;Jack of all trades\u0026rdquo;. However, individuals or companies do not spontaneously increase flexibility; instead, they allocate education and training to enhance cognitive skills. This is because highly flexible workers earn lower wages, which is why such flexibility is not automated\u0026mdash;a highly flexible worker costs much less than a flexible machine. 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