Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Women in tech to tackle how automation affects our jobs

Women in tech to tackle how automation affects our jobs

The last Industrial Revolution transformed society, and not always for the better. How will the current tech revolution affect workers’ lives? Is technology taking our jobs?

That’s the first question open to debate for the newly rebooted B.C. chapter of Women in Communications and Technology.

Four women — Christin Wiedemann of PQA Testing, Kathy Gibson of Catchy Consulting, Laura Sukorokoff of Hyperwallet and Sally Whitehead of Sophos — will tackle the issue on March 6.The debate will be conducted in the “Oxford style” popularized by the Intelligence Squared podcast.“Automation, driven by technological progress, has been expanding for the past several decades,” […]

Trialling the future of jobs

Trialling the future of jobs

Robotic jockeys control camels during a race at Al Sawan Race Track in January in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. New technology is threatening jobs in many, sometimes unexpected, areas. EDITORIAL: Perpetual Guardian. A low-key Kiwi company that essentially helps people deal with arrangements as they approach the end of their lives.

Ironic then that it should be conducting a high-profile trial potentially paving the way for the future of employment in this country.

One possible future, at least. One which our legislators should be considering closely.The firm is piloting a shorter working week, in which employees work four days […]

Trialling the future of jobs

Trialling the future of jobs

Robotic jockeys control camels during a race at Al Sawan Race Track in January in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. New technology is threatening jobs in many, sometimes unexpected, areas. EDITORIAL: Perpetual Guardian. A low-key Kiwi company that essentially helps people deal with arrangements as they approach the end of their lives.

Ironic then that it should be conducting a high-profile trial potentially paving the way for the future of employment in this country.

One possible future, at least. One which our legislators should be considering closely.The firm is piloting a shorter working week, in which employees work four days […]

‘Worrying trends’: Gig economy threatens to cost consumers ‘quality’ services, top economist says

Uber-style contract work is a bigger threat to future jobs in the $80 billion transport industry than automation, a new report has warned.

It says that new technology including driverless cars and big data are less of a threat to transport jobs in the medium term than technology jobs platforms that provide individual jobs on a contract basis.

The Future of Transportation Work: Technology, Work Organisation, and the Quality of Jobs by economists Jim Stanford and Matt Grudnoff, from the left-wing think tank The Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute says the transport industry is valuable to the […]

How Demographics, Automation, And Inequality Will Shape The Next Decade

How Demographics, Automation, And Inequality Will Shape The Next Decade

Income inequality has increased rapidly in the last few decades, as the gains from globalization, technology, and political changes have flowed largely to top earners. At the same time, wages among earners in the lower and lower-middle of the income scale have stagnated.

And here’s the scary thing: These trends are likely to speed up in the next 10 years, according to consulting firm Bain & Company . By 2030, automation will eliminate up to 25% of all jobs in the U.S., hitting those at the bottom hardest. It forecasts that the benefits of automation will go mostly to the […]

Will Robots Take My Job?

Will Robots Take My Job?

BU economist finds job loss to machines, but sees long-term hope

Are we bumping up against the “ Robocalypse ,” where automation sweeps industry and replaces human workers with machines? BU economist Pascual Restrepo says that interpretation is too gloomy, although his recent research , posted online by the National Bureau of Economic Research , reveals that the adoption of just one industrial robot eliminates nearly six jobs in a community.

The study, examining job losses between 1990 and 2007, modified earlier research by Restrepo, a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of economics, and coauthor Daron Acemoglu of […]

Walter E. Williams: Will automation in time be death of workplace?

Walter E. Williams: Will automation in time be death of workplace?

A recent article in The Guardian dons the foreboding title “Robots will destroy our jobs — and we’re not ready for it.” The article claims, “For every job created by robotic automation, several more will be eliminated entirely . . . This disruption will have a devastating impact on our workforce.”

According to an article in MIT Technology Review, business researchers Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee believe that rapid technological change has been destroying jobs faster than it is creating them, contributing to the stagnation of median income and the growth of inequality in the United States.

If technology is destroying […]

Doing Without Thinking: Technology Goes Too Far

Doing Without Thinking: Technology Goes Too Far

COURTESY OF YOUTUBE.COM There are times, frequent if not many, when mankind takes on an endeavor, full swing, without considering the consequences of our actions. In any event, I believe that there is a growing trend, without any signs of slowing down, that will endanger the fabric of society as we know it: the process of automation. This argument won’t delve into the dangers of artificial intelligence, but rather, the dangers of what it means to be human. While some praise the rise of automation as an increase in the quality of life, and a strengthening of the economy, […]

Doing Without Thinking: Technology Goes Too Far

Doing Without Thinking: Technology Goes Too Far

COURTESY OF YOUTUBE.COM There are times, frequent if not many, when mankind takes on an endeavor, full swing, without considering the consequences of our actions. In any event, I believe that there is a growing trend, without any signs of slowing down, that will endanger the fabric of society as we know it: the process of automation. This argument won’t delve into the dangers of artificial intelligence, but rather, the dangers of what it means to be human. While some praise the rise of automation as an increase in the quality of life, and a strengthening of the economy, […]

From academia to business: Making robotics as big as the computer industry

From academia to business: Making robotics as big as the computer industry

In this exclusive interview, Dr Andrew Goldenberg, chief technology officer at Engineering Services Inc , offers his perspective on a wide range of topics, including the idea that a more commercial attitude is needed in the robotics and automation sector to make it as big as the automotive or computer industry

When you’ve been in the robotics and automation industry for more than 35 years, you tend to form opinions that other people want to hear and learn from – even if those opinions are not entirely complimentary to the listener.

Dr Andrew Goldenberg is professor emeritus at […]