デジタル人材育成の視点から捉えた労働力不足とその対応のあり方

抄録

This article examines labor shortages in Japan from the perspective of digital talent development. It argues that the issue should not be understood merely as a shortage of workers, but as a challenge of redesigning work and upgrading existing human resources within the context of demographic decline. As the labor force participation of women and older workers approaches its limits, the key question becomes how to generate more value from the current workforce. The spread of generative AI is changing both the type of digital talent required, and how it should be developed. The focus is shifting from solely cultivating advanced IT specialists, to enabling workers across occupations to integrate generative AI into everyday tasks and create value by redesigning their work. However, this shift is constrained by organizational immaturity, the concentration of learning and support burdens among a small group of active users, and the absence of clear labor-market valuation for generative AI skills. The article concludes that digital talent development can become a viable response to labor shortages only if policy helps build soft infrastructure connecting learning and practical experience with job roles, placement, compensation, and labor mobility.