Author: automata

Knowledge more crucial than skills in future economy

Knowledge more crucial than skills in future economy

What can the future hold for students seeking majors in a job market moving from part-time employment to emergent automation?

In the United States, neither political party has offered any significant frameworks for the coming challenges of automation displacing workers as economic inequality becomes unsustainable. While one party offers bread-crumb handouts such as education reform and more training for the American workforce, the other peddles the cliché that government is the problem, not the solution, offering fantasy schemes of fewer regulations, a new gig economy and a trickle-down economy by reducing taxes for the mega-wealthy.

A recent article in the […]

Are trade agreements good for the U.S. economy?

Are trade agreements good for the U.S. economy?

The Congressional Budget Office isn’t exactly offering a ringing endorsement of trade agreements like NAFTA.

Such pacts have “had relatively small positive effects” on American trade and its economy, according to a report from the federal agency, which analyzes economic and budget issues on behalf of lawmakers. The downside? Workers in industries facing tougher competition can end up out of work, sometimes permanently, CBO notes.

Trade agreements have become a lightning rod in the presidential election, with Republican candidate Donald Trump declaring that the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement “has destroyed our country,” and suggesting that if elected he would […]

Is a Robot After Your Job?

Is a Robot After Your Job?

With the economy the way it is, most manufacturing workers are afraid that their company will move out of the country, or that someone who will work for less will get their job. Now, there is another fear—is a robot after your job? In some factories, robots already outnumber the human workers. The general factory workforce is going through radical changes with more robots being employed at a vigorous pace. How will this affect your job? An Oxford study reports that 47% of all jobs will be taken over by a robot within the next twenty years.

Robotic technology is […]

Will Artifical Intelligence Mean Massive Job Loss?

This article is from the
September/October 2016 issue. Dear Dr. Dollar:

What’s the story with artificial intelligence and jobs? Will the application of robotics to production really lead to massive unemployment?
—Anonymous, via email In the late 1970s, my early years at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB), the Department of Economics had two secretaries. When I retired, in 2008, the number of faculty members and students in the department had increased, but there was only one secretary. All the faculty members had their own computers, with which they did much of the work that secretaries had […]

A burger-flipping robot? How automation threatens to disrupt the workforce

A burger-flipping robot? How automation threatens to disrupt the workforce

In this Monday, Aug. 29, 2016 photo, a robot places a pizza into an oven at Zume Pizza in Mountain View, Calif. The startup, which began delivery in April, is using intelligent machines to grab a slice of the multi-billion-dollar pizza delivery market. Robots are capable of taking over countless tasks that human workers are paid to perform, and these meddlesome machines are not just out for low-paying jobs — they can replace many of the duties of six-figure income earners.

These revelations are contained in research compiled at San Francisco’s McKinsey Global Institute, which studies emerging economic trends. Its […]

Ben Chu: Why a robot is not going to steal your job

We live not so much in the age of the robots as in the age of worrying about the robots. New books and think pieces proliferate about the threat to the world’s workers from the twin forces of digitisation and automation.

The shadow Chancellor John McDonnell this week has cited new technology as a reason why his party is looking closely at a Universal Basic Income.

The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, last year suggested that 15m British jobs could be automated.Such is the buzz around the subject that one half expects to arrive at the office one morning […]

How one business brought back manufacturing jobs

How one business brought back manufacturing jobs

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A look inside the Zentech manufacturing facility. – If you want to find out how to bring manufacturing jobs back from Asia, one route might be to start with someone who’s done it. Matt Turpin is CEO of Zentech, an electronics manufacturer in Baltimore, Maryland. His company manufactures goods or components for other companies.“We’ve brought back probably four projects in the past two years,” he said. There are “probably 30 people associated with those projects.”How’d he do it? First, “the level of automation has increased dramatically," Turpin said. "What used to take two to three […]

“Basic Income”: A Solution To Unemployment In The Era Of Automation?

“Basic Income”: A Solution To Unemployment In The Era Of Automation?

The online buzz about the concept of “basic income” is getting stronger and stronger, even within just the last two weeks. What is this all about, and how might this impact you in the future?

Well, let’s say that increasing innovations in AI and robotics start putting more and more of the population out of a job. For example, suppose the self-driving vehicle thing really becomes a thing . That’s millions and millions of people out of work, who will have to learn a new skill in order to get employment—seeking employment in the greatly decreased job pool because automation […]

John McDonnell thinks the chance of a robot stealing your job is so high we need a universal basic income – but he’s wrong

John McDonnell thinks the chance of a robot stealing your job is so high we need a universal basic income – but he's wrong

We live not so much in the age of the robots as in the age of worrying about the robots.

New books and think pieces proliferate about the threat to the world’s workers from the twin forces of digitisation and automation. Read more McDonnell pledges £10-an-hour minimum wage and backs universal income Labour’s Chancellor John McDonnell this week has cited new technology as a reason why his party is looking closely at a Universal Basic Income.

The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, last year suggested that 15m British jobs could be automated.Such is the buzz around the subject that […]

Fewer Routine Jobs But More Routine Work

Fewer Routine Jobs But More Routine Work

Martina Bisello In the digital age, there are fewer routine jobs because of a higher risk of automation. But a great paradox of this age is this: workers in most types of jobs, including high-skilled ones, are reporting higher levels of routine at work. This emerges from a new study of the task content of occupations in Europe .

The concept of routine tasks has become prominent in research and policy debates on the future of employment. An influential 2003 MIT paper argued that computerization facilitates the automation of tasks and jobs involving a high degree of routine. Many researchers […]