Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Democrats aim to abolish right-to-work laws

Democrats aim to abolish right-to-work laws

Carl Loeffler, Secretary of the Senate, certifies Senate passage over the presidential veto of the Taft-Hartley Labor Union Curbing Bill, June 23, 1947. (AP Photo) In 1947, over President Harry Truman’s veto, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act. In doing so, it put an end to a long-since-forgotten era of labor unrest and paved the way to the prosperous 1950s.

Taft-Hartley curbed some of the worst excesses of Depression-era law that govern labor unions even to this day. Its greatest contribution to our modern governance was the state right-to-work law. States could forbid the pernicious practice of forcing workers to pay […]

Tech world debate on robots and jobs heats up

Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are heightening concerns about automation replacing a growing number of occupations

Are robots coming for your job?

Although technology has long affected the labor force, recent advances in and robotics are heightening concerns about automation replacing a growing number of occupations, including highly skilled or “knowledge-based” .Just a few examples: self-driving technology may eliminate the need for taxi, Uber and truck drivers, algorithms are playing a growing role in journalism, robots are informing consumers as mall greeters, and medicine is adapting robotic surgery and artificial intelligence to detect cancer and heart conditions.Of 700 occupations in […]

Commentary: Online shopping is growing, but it isn’t creating jobs

This has not been a great century for working in retail. The sector, which added about 5 million jobs from 1980 through the end of 2000, has added only 416,100 since. Since January 2017, retailers have shed 145,200 jobs even as overall employment growth has remained strong.

The obvious explanation here is the rise of online shopping. Nonstore retailers such as Amazon are included in the above retail employment totals, but with employment of 570,500 as of November they simply haven’t created enough jobs to make up for the stagnation in the rest of the sector. If you add in […]

Trumping commerce

Free trade and globalisation had a bad 2016, but it looks like 2017 could be even worse.

For decades there has been a consensus that globalisation brought more jobs, higher wages and lower prices – not just for richer countries but also for developing and poorer nations.

But there is now a growing movement of anger as people see jobs being taken by machines, old industries disappearing and waves of migration disturbing the established order.Global trade flows are falling and trade deals are being ripped up.The new US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 45% on […]

Employment warning

Millions around the globe may have taken to the streets in recent years to protest against the impact of globalisation on their jobs and communities – but this backlash is only likely to grow as globalisation itself becomes more disruptive.

The stark warning comes from Richard Baldwin, president of the Centre for Economic Policy Research think-tank, who has been studying global trade for the past 30 years.

Technological advances could now mean white-collar, office-based workers and professionals are at risk of losing their jobs, Prof Baldwin argues.In the US, voter anger with globalisation may have led to Donald Trump‘s election victory, […]

Let’s make full use of tech advances

Let's make full use of tech advances

Pupils from SK Seri Terentang in Pahang with their invention at the Maker Robot Festival in Ulsan, South Korea, in October. It is vital to prepare the young for the era of robotics.NSTP/MOHD RAFI MAMAT THANKS to creative minds at work since the beginning of our species, Homo sapiens (‘wise man’), technology has continuously transformed societies.

Imagine the impact on lives when some early man or woman first shaped a rock or branch into a simple tool. Or saw a stone roll and recognised the idea and potential of the wheel. Or discovered how to control fire. Or first cultivated […]

Trump’s Budget Is Awful if You’re a Worker, Great if You’re a Robot

When the robots rise up, they won’t take your life. They’ll take your job, particularly those in fields primed for automation, like manufacturing, trucking, and customer service. Technologists, economists, and policymakers believe this future is all but inevitable, and say it’s time to begin thinking seriously about how to ensure artificial intelligence advances humanity—and improves the economy, without .

Two economists who recently left Washington say the answer lies in ensuring the government provides enough of a safety net to help middle class Americans navigate the coming transition. Jason Furman and Gene Sperling—former chief economic advisors to President Obama—prefer to […]

4 Robotic Process Automation Trends for 2020

4 Robotic Process Automation Trends for 2020

As IT groups increase for a prosperous 2020, many are watchful for creative new applications that can enable them to calibrate their companies and improve business performance. Artificial intelligence is without a doubt on everybody’s radar, except all the more explicitly, robotic process automation ( RPA ), the subset of AI that empowers IT groups to configure software “robots” to capture data and perform routine tasks, is picking up traction as an alluring spot to start with outcomes centered AI implementation. RPA is getting one of the most exciting opportunities in the AI space and will keep on sparkling […]

England: Legal sector could shed tens of thousands of jobs with AI take-up

England: Legal sector could shed tens of thousands of jobs with AI take-up

Increased take-up of artificial intelligence technology in the legal sector could put tens of thousands of paralegals and other support staff out of a job, according to research published by the Law Society of England and Wales .

The legal regulator commissioned the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) to analyse the size and shape of the legal sector workforce and model changes to the occupational structure in legal services due to increased demand and productivity.

The Law Society has estimated a four per cent decline in the number of people working in the legal profession by 2027, but the IES says […]

How Content Automation Saves Jobs and Puts Journalists to Work

How Content Automation Saves Jobs and Puts Journalists to Work

When Chicken Little famously wailed about a falling sky, it was an early example of fearmongering. Twenty-five centuries after the cumulative tale first appeared, some media outlets are wondering if the heavens will tumble upon the overworked noggins of hard-working journalists.

Not if automation has anything to say about it .

Although automation is often cast in a negative light , it saves jobs in the publishing world by driving subscriptions, improving ad revenues, reducing costs and expanding the breadth of topics. Saves Jobs – Automation improves unit economics to enable news publishers to curb layoffs and grow newsrooms. Drives Subscriptions […]