Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Automation and its enemies

Automation and its enemies

The Industrial Revolution made technology the engine of economic growth (Landes 1969, Mokyr 1990). Before 1750, per capita income in the world doubled every 6,000 years. Since then, it has doubled every 50 years (DeLong 1999). This acceleration was in large part the consequence of applying machinery in production, which allowed us to produce more with fewer people (Frey 2019). Seen in this light, the current automation hysteria is hard to understand. Future generations could make an extraordinary leap forward from the Industrial Revolution’s ‘great enrichment’. The industrialisation process itself, however, was a different matter. The Luddites, who rioted […]

ANALYSIS: How to manage working next to a robot

ANALYSIS: How to manage working next to a robot

Should we believe headlines claiming nearly half of all jobs will be lost to robots and artificial intelligence?

We think not, and in a newly released study we explain why.

Headlines trumpeting massive job losses have been in abundance for five or so years.Even The Conversation has had its had its share .Most come from a common source.It is a single study , conducted in 2013 by Oxford University’s Carl Benedict Frey and Michael Osborne .This study lies behind the claim that 47% of jobs in the United States were at “high risk” of automation over the next ten or so […]

Automation brings both prospects and risks to Bangladesh’s apparel industry

Automation brings both prospects and risks to Bangladesh’s apparel industry

Thanks to automation, the apparel plant of Softex Sweater Industries at Savar on the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka reduced the number of workers to 22 from 700 in the knitting unit.

The plant needs fewer workers as they just sort the items manufactured by the machines, according to the company’s Head of Operations Tahzeeb Ul Gani Shahjee.

“You only need to feed designs and measurements into the machines. One worker can look after five machines at a time. The machines do the basic knitting while the workers only sort the products,” he told bdnews24.com . Linking, trimming, washing and […]

Your View: Ignore Andrew Yang. Automation is good for our economy

Your View: Ignore Andrew Yang. Automation is good for our economy

Robots weld the bed of a 2018 Ford F-150 truck at the Ford Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan. (Carlos Osorio/AP) The presidential debates have featured several candidates with new proposals to curb the threat automation poses to workers. Andrew Yang has his signature Freedom Dividend, giving $1,000 a month to every American to alleviate technological unemployment.

There’s a catch with all of these solutions, though. The problem they’re meant to solve doesn’t exist. Ignatios Draklellis (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) The idea that jobs are being automated so quickly that it is displacing workers and causing societal dysfunction has become ubiquitous in […]

The New World of Work | Podbay

The New World of Work | Podbay

How can business leaders can make the new world of work better for people?

We speak with two leaders on the forefront of applying AI techniques such as automation and machine learning in the business world. How can CEOs stay ahead of the curve in training and developing their workforce for using this technology? Since companies are doing the hiring and creating the jobs, what role do they play in talent and development? How should companies think about hiring as work changes? John Donahoe, CEO of ServiceNow, and Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, tackle the tough questions facing companies […]

No, the Robots are Not Going to Take all Our Jobs

No, the Robots are Not Going to Take all Our Jobs

The robots are coming—and according to some experts, they’re here to take our jobs. Artificial intelligence and automation have made our world an increasingly futuristic wonder to behold. However, some “experts” still apparently worry such a future is a dystopian one—where robots, AI and automation will slowly phase out Americans workers, costing tens of millions of jobs in the decade ahead.

It’s not hard to see why these warnings are taken seriously. After all, Amazon is on the verge of opening up “cashierless” stores—grocery stores where customers are free to waltz in, grab their products, and walk out without ever […]

Demand for Collaborative Robots Continues to Grow

Demand for Collaborative Robots Continues to Grow

The trade war between China and the U.S. has hit hard at robot sales and orders, at least for the moment. The Robot division of the Fanuc Group showed revenues down 11.5% for the six months ending September 2019, compared to the previous year. At ABB, orders at the Robotics & Discrete Automation division were down 18% in the third quarter, while revenues were down 6% in revenues. At the Yaskawa Group, robotics sales were down 9% for the six months ending August 2019.

One exception to this negative trend was Teradyne, which makes collaborative robots (cobots)–that is, robots designed […]

How Blue Collar Female Workers Benefit From New Technology

How Blue Collar Female Workers Benefit From New Technology

In this Jan. 24, 2019, photo, Zakiyyah Askia installs plumbing at a high rise residence under Recent tech news has evidenced how women are facing increased opportunities in the tech sector which had traditionally been allotted to males. Where bias in the workforce has systematically marginalized women, however, the evidence that women actually have increased opportunities in tech is not hard-fast since automation is also showing that women in blue-collar jobs are being hit hardest by automation and other forms of new technology. Ultimately, men in blue collar fields will likely be hit hardest in the long-run, but how […]

Voting for policy and candidates in elections

What if I were to tell you that every month, Americans 18 and over could receive $1,000 per month for the rest of their lives with no strings or gimmicks attached? This policy known as Universal Basic Income (UBI) is essentially a price floor that guarantees every American citizen over 18, a fixed amount per month regardless of your income or employment status.
You may think it sounds nice and wonder why no one has ever mentioned previously mentioned it; however, UBI isn’t a completely foreign concept in U.S. history. Back in the 1960s, UBI gained traction passing through […]

The lure of “so-so technology,” and how to avoid it

The lure of “so-so technology,” and how to avoid it

Workers have long been disrupted by new technology, from typesetters giving way to automated printing processes to bank tellers and the rise of ATMs. Historically, new technology has led to greater productivity as displaced workers shift to new tasks —typesetters might become graphic layout artists, while bank tellers focus on more complicated banking services.

The current era of automation has been different, according to researchers. As new digital technologies become commonplace, productivity has stagnated and fears about unemployment have become widespread.

According to MIT professorand Boston University’s Pascual Restrepo part of the problem is what they call “so-so technologies”: advances that […]