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Avoiding unemployment in a post-growth economy

Jonathan S. Aldred

Ecological Economics2026https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.108974article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

There is increasing concern about rising unemployment in early industrialised countries, arising from low economic growth or the emergence of new labour-displacing technologies, notably AI. Post-growth economics has explored a number of strategies to prevent unemployment, such as working time reductions. This paper contributes to this discussion, focusing on two strategies. The first strategy involves a shift in the composition of output towards labour-intensive services. It is argued that Baumol's cost disease may be less problematic for this strategy than is commonly believed. The second strategy involves re-orienting production towards more labour-intensive processes (taking the composition of output as fixed). This strategy has received less attention, partly because it appears to involve rising costs of production. Drawing on insights from post-Keynesian and institutional economics, this paper argues that under some circumstances more labour-intensive production processes can be adopted without increasing unit costs.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.108974

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@article{jonathan2026,
  title        = {{Avoiding unemployment in a post-growth economy}},
  author       = {Jonathan S. Aldred},
  journal      = {Ecological Economics},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.108974},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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