Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Manufacturing Job Losses are from Trade not Automation

Manufacturing Job Losses are from Trade not Automation

Many people today are concerned about automation. And not without good reason – automation has been blamed for the dramatic job losses seen in manufacturing over the last few decades. And we are warned that automation will soon come for a wider range of jobs – which some think could cause "Depression-level" unemployment .

However, last year an paper was published which overturned the consensus narrative on what exactly is responsible for the job losses the U.S. has seen in the manufacturing sector. Many experts and economists have argued for decades that automation, not foreign trade is responsible for the […]

Plentiful jobs but slow growth: 10 facts about the expansion

FILE- In this June 12, 2019, file photo a man walks in downtown Miami. Ten straight years of growth. Unemployment at a five-decade low. Higher wages for the poorest workers. The economic expansion that just became America’s longest on record didn’t produce an especially fast pace of growth. It didn’t narrow the vast gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else. (Brynn Anderson, File/Associated Press) WASHINGTON — Ten straight years of growth. Unemployment at a five-decade low. Higher wages for the poorest workers.

The economic expansion that just became America’s longest on record didn’t produce an especially fast pace of […]

Oxford Economics: Robots are here and they are after your job

Oxford Economics: Robots are here and they are after your job

Although robots and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have boosted global productivity and economic growth, more than 2,030 manufacturing jobs now performed by humans will be lost to innovation in the coming decade, according to a new report released Wednesday (June 26) by United Kingdom’s Oxford Economics.

In a 64-page report entitled “How Robots Change the World,” Oxford CEO and Chief Economist Adrian Cooper said the robotics revolution is rapidly accelerating, as fast-paced technological advances in automation, engineering, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and machine learning converge. The result, Cooper concludes, will transform the capabilities of robots and their ability to take […]

By 2030, 20 million workers will lose their jobs to robots

By 2030, 20 million workers will lose their jobs to robots

A new study from analysis firm Oxford Economics predicts that by 2030, over 20 million workers in the manufacturing industry will lose their jobs to robots.

“As machines become cheaper to build and artificial intelligence technology becomes more comprehensive and affordable, many industries are going to become robot-centric,” says Rob Wilson. “Just look at the automotive industry: Starting in the 1980s, companies were spending billions of dollars to create robots to perform basic tasks in their automobile factories. Now, 43 percent of the world’s robots are used by the automotive industry. We should expect to see a similar trend in […]

‘Fully Automated Luxury Communism’ Author Has a Big Problem With Lettuce

'Fully Automated Luxury Communism' Author Has a Big Problem With Lettuce

Is lettuce slowly killing the planet? For Aaron Bastani, it’s emblematic of humanity’s cavalier approach to markets and the environment.

“Flying a lettuce from North America to Europe, which has zero calories, burning hydrocarbons to do so is really stupid,” Bastani author of the recent Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto , said during a Virtual Futures event about his new book.

The author, known among the British left for co-founding Novara Media , caused a stir this month when he penned a New York Times article outlining his post-capitalist vision. New technologies like robots and automation could provide a rich […]

The robots are definitely coming and will make the world a more unequal place

The robots are definitely coming and will make the world a more unequal place

So the robots are coming for our jobs, are they? Yawn. That’s such an old story. Goes back to Elizabeth I and the stocking frame, if my memory serves me right. Machines have been taking our jobs forever. But economists, despite their reputation as practitioners of the “dismal science”, have always been upbeat about that. Sure, machines destroy jobs, they say. But hey, the new industries that new technology enables create even more new jobs. Granted, there may be a bit of “disruption” between destruction and creation, but that’s just capitalist business as usual. Besides, it’s progress, innit?

We have […]

By 2030, 20 Million Workers Will Lose their Jobs to Robots

By 2030, 20 Million Workers Will Lose their Jobs to Robots

A new study from analysis firm Oxford Economics predicts that by 2030, over 20 million workers in the manufacturing industry will lose their jobs to robots.

At last nights Democratic Debate for the 2020 Nominee for President Andrew Yang presented his key signature plan of $ 1000 a month guaranteed income for every American. The reason for the automatic income for everyone is the rise of Robots. He argues that it’s going to happen very soon and we will NOT be able to replace those jobs replaced by robots. Thus we will need this income to make our economy […]

The Problem For Blue-Collar Workers Isn’t China, It’s Lousy Economic Recoveries

The Problem For Blue-Collar Workers Isn’t China, It’s Lousy Economic Recoveries

I think Brad DeLong makes a good point today. It’s true that we lost a lot of traditionally blue-collar-male jobs to China in the early aughts, but the trade deficits that crowded-out those jobs also had a mirror-image effect: Imports crowd-in traditionally-male blue-collar wholesale trade jobs, and finance traditionally-male blue-collar construction (and capital-goods manufacturing) jobs. If you look at all traditionally-male blue-collar jobs—wholesale, construction, manufacturing, and mining—what you get is not a story of the trade deficit, but rather a story of (a) macro shocks to aggregate demand, and (b) the long-run technology-and-preferences trend—some of which is automation…. [The […]

Blue collar jobs in telecom space will drop with evolving technologies: TSSC CEO

With evolving technologies and a growing demand for automation, jobs for uneducated will cease to exist in the telecom sector in the next 3-5 years, Telecom Sector Skill Council CEO S P Kochhar said Thursday.

"To employ uneducated in telecom sector will not be possible in 3-5 years. Blue collar jobs in the mobile tower space cannot be done away as of now but with 5G maturing demand for these jobs will drop," Kochhar said on sidelines of ‘Telecom Manthan 2019’ event.

He further said that tariff war doesn’t seem to be easing in the telecom sector and companies will look […]

Automation Should Be a Major 2020 Issue. Andrew Yang Failed to Put it On the Map

Automation Should Be a Major 2020 Issue. Andrew Yang Failed to Put it On the Map

It’s early yet, but automation is already on track to become the most ignored issue this campaign cycle—outpacing even the neglected climate change, which, while broached both nights of the first Democratic presidential debate this week, deserves a much larger share of the conversation . Corporate automation, and the mass job loss and degradation it portends, was the subject of just a single question in four hours of debate and mentioned by the candidates only twice.

This despite the fact that one of the candidates—the techie and former entrepreneur Andrew Yang— has built his entire campaign around the threat of […]