Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

No Robo-Apocalypse

No Robo-Apocalypse

It is now conventional wisdom to think that rapid automation and advances in artificial intelligence will eventually render most professions obsolete, ushering in an age of mass unemployment. But there is no economic law that says workers must lose out when new innovations are introduced.

DURHAM – The new Gilded Age is here. As the rich and powerful collect the most advanced technological gadgets, average workers are increasingly concerned about the “ rising tide of automation .”

There is plenty of fodder for a narrative about the inevitable large-scale displacement of workers by robots. Proliferating reports assert that technological unemployment will […]

Building an AI safety net

Artificial intelligence and related technologies will create as many jobs as they destroy in the UK over the next 20 years, according to PwC. The consultancy says its current forecasts suggest that the overall net effect of AI on UK jobs may be broadly neutral.

The economic sectors set to see the largest net increase in jobs due to AI over the coming two decades include health (+22%), professional, scientific and technical services (+16%) and education (+6%), according to PwC forecasts .

However, there’s bad employment news for others. The largest net long-term decreases in jobs will be in manufacturing (-25%), […]

Should you worry about automation taking your job? Yes!

Should you worry about automation taking your job? Yes!

Artificial intelligence continues to dominate the technology news. AI startups are blossoming like desert flowers after a spring rain. Venture capital continues to flow into these startups at a fantastic rate. There’s a lot of money being made, but what is the impact of AI on the economy as a whole? More importantly, what is the effect of increased automation on people’s jobs?

In the past, automation tended to affect blue-collar jobs, such as factory workers. This continues to be true, but the reach of AI is growing, which means even more manual labor is destined for automation. This will […]

An AI may kill your job, but it’ll also create millions more

An AI may kill your job, but it'll also create millions more

Artificial intelligence will create as many jobs as it displaces in the UK, but its impact will be felt disproportionately across different sectors, according to PwC research. According to the firm, AI is set to create 7.2 million jobs over the next 20 years, slightly more than the seven million predicted to be lost to automation.

However, the impact of new technologies won’t be felt evenly across all industries. Sectors like healthcare and education are set to benefit , whereas manufacturing and transport are estimated to see the largest decreases in jobs due to AI.

"People are understandably worried about the […]

From picking to pollinating, agribots are pushing farming into the future

From picking to pollinating, agribots are pushing farming into the future

A shiny, metallic one-armed robot wheels along the rows of red pepper plants, its video camera bobbing up and down to spot the ripened fruit. When it zeros-in on one, the arm, equipped with a gripper distantly resembling a human hand, stretches out and grasps the pepper, while a quick swish of a knife cuts it off the vine. The bot may not look like the elegant C-3PO from Star Wars , but don’t shrug it off as yet another dummy automation. This pepper-picker is a new breakthrough in modern engineering: a sophisticated AI-equipped machine, built by the leading […]

Think SA’s unemployment is bad now? Automation could kill another 4.5m jobs – expert

Think SA’s unemployment is bad now? Automation could kill another 4.5m jobs – expert

JOHANNESBURG — This article takes a rather realistic (and possibly even bleak) look at how 4IR tech, such as automation, could eliminate millions of jobs in South Africa. While I have no doubt that automation will create new jobs that we haven’t even heard of yet, what’s clear is that highly skilled workers will be able to adapt while low-skilled workers may find themselves unemployed in huge numbers. This will hit South Africa hard as our government has, quite frankly, failed in sufficiently skilling up the majority of the country’s population for the 21st Century. This article should serve […]

Productivity Remains as Paradoxical as Ever, Despite Digital Transformation

Productivity Remains as Paradoxical as Ever, Despite Digital Transformation

The evolution of the future of work looks a lot like the past, but probably with more Uber and Deliveroo drivers, at least if you believe the Productivity Commission. In fact, it turns automation might not be the harbinger of the great employment apocalypse after all, despite a plethora of commentary and dystopian angst to the contrary.

Instead, the evidence of the last hundred years suggests that labour markets have been pretty well resilient to ‘shocks’ posed by new technologies including the upheavals caused by the arrivals of the latest global digital giants.

That’s the view of the Deputy Chair of […]

Robots on the job could ‘automatically’ mean losing yours

Robots on the job could ‘automatically’ mean losing yours

Are modern technological innovations now of such intensity and scale that in the future it is likely to see fewer job opportunities across the Western world and a sharp increase in leisure time? The disruption caused to the job market by Industry 4.0, robotization and the rise of people-free delivery services is already well-documented. There is evidence to suggest that changes will happen on a significant socio-economical scale, compared with the sporadic technical upgrades we have seen until now.

However, it raises several interesting questions: as a workforce are we ready, socially and psychologically, for an increase in leisure time?

Can […]

With changes in education and fair wages, technology can be a worker’s friend

With changes in education and fair wages, technology can be a worker’s friend

In a speech in Perth to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, Karen Chester, the deputy chair of the Productivity Commission, has provided a bit of pushback on the doom and gloom scenarios about the future of work. But that does not mean things will all go smoothly. Chester argues for changes to education and greater incentives to move into work not able to be automated to ensure technology provides “not just more jobs but jobs for most”.

The easy headline – especially given numerous recent studies such as those done by the IMF – is to be fearful […]

Fewer Israeli Arab Men Have Jobs – and Wage Growth Has Stalled

Fewer Israeli Arab Men Have Jobs – and Wage Growth Has Stalled

File photo: An Israel-Arab construction worker near Ma’aleh Adumim. For years Israeli policy makers have focused with some success on coaxing ultra-Orthodox men and Arab women into the workforce. But as research from the Israel Democracy Institute shows, fewer and fewer Arab men have jobs and their wage growth is lagging behind other Israelis.

And the problem, says Eitan Regev, an economist and a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, is likely to worsen as the needs of Israel’s high-tech economy diverge from the kind of jobs Israeli Arab men can perform because of their low education levels.

Among Jewish […]