Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

75% of Aussies think robots will pinch their jobs

Does the rise of robots, computerised jobs and machines terrify you slightly? Does all the airline chatbots, Wi-Fi in the skies, and threats of OTAs have you a teensy bit nervous for your own job lifespan?

Well, turns out you’re not alone, friends.

New YouGov research reveals almost half of 18-29-year-olds in Australia believe a robot could do their job at least as well as them.Developments in genetics, artificial intelligence and robotics mean that robots could actually end up destroying livelihoods across vast swathes of the population, with recent research suggesting that about 45 per cent of the activities people are […]

Robots are welcome to clean our houses, but we’ll hang on to our jobs: Research reveals Aussie attitudes

Robots are welcome to clean our houses, but we’ll hang on to our jobs: Research reveals Aussie attitudes

The potential impact that automation will have on employment across a variety of industries is a growing focus, however, new YouGov Omnibus data shows Australians are maintaining perspective on the pros and cons of the rise of the robots.

According to YouGov data collected in September from a sample size of just over 1000 people, nearly two-thirds of Australians believe robots “will make our lives easier”, and three-quarters agree robots “can do things humans don’t want to do”.

YouGov found that fewer than one in seven Australians say they would not want a robot in their lives, and when survey respondents […]

We bailed out the bankers. And yet we’re ready to throw care workers to the wolves

We bailed out the bankers. And yet we’re ready to throw care workers to the wolves

It should have been a big victory for care workers. For years, those on overnight “sleep-in” shifts in the homes of disabled adults and older people have been paid a flat rate, typically between £25 and £40 a night. But in 2013, the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that a care worker was entitled to the minimum wage for the time spent sleeping on a camp bed in a living room in order to be on hand to provide overnight support to young adults with Down’s syndrome should they need it.

Speak to a carer doing these shifts and you understand […]

A not so brave new world

The industrialized world has dealt with automation and labor-saving devices for centuries. Industrialization itself is the product of early labor-saving devices — the steam engine and machine tools such as the milling machine. Machines have become more sophisticated since then, but automation has largely supplanted the crudest forms of labor — pure muscle — and posed a limited threat to “creative” workers or intellectuals. That is about to change.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been recognized as one of the most important developments of the postindustrial era, a source of extraordinary opportunities for business and individuals. In the most rhapsodic versions, […]

In next three years, these 7 are going to be the new white-collar jobs

In next three years, these 7 are going to be the new white-collar jobs

At a time when IT and telecom sector are cutting jobs mainly due to induction of newer technology and automation, new job prospects are opening for the future as well. But these job prospects are going be completely different from what the trend has been in the past decade, and would require completely different skill sets.

The current employment trend is that the internet and exponential technologies are creating new employment opportunities in the areas of ‘white-collar’ working, also known as gig economy.

Here are the jobs that are going be in focus in 2020: VFX Artist : VFX […]

Brave new world

Brave new world

Jason Kaplan Cascades tissue factory, Scappoose

Manufacturers grapple with automation.

In an industrial park on the outskirts of Portland, a small team of engineers are putting the final touches on an elaborate machine they have just built. The machine makes liners for bicycle helmets that are designed to protect against brain injury.Michael Bottlang, director of the Legacy Biomechanics Laboratory in Portland, spent more than 10 years researching and developing the new product, known as WaveCel. He also helped design the new machine that will mass produce the liners. Michael Bottlang Bottlang’s team is still refining and optimizing the machine, […]

Value-added workers are essential with automation

Value-added workers are essential with automation

Gloria Dunn-Violin The New Retirement: A Paradigm Shift ( nbbj.news/newretirement ) is a recurring column by Gloria Dunn-Violin, whose new book “ReVivement: Having a Life after Making a Living” is available in bookstores and on Amazon.com. Dunn-Violin is a professional speaker, preretirement workshop leader, and a business consultant through her company, Having a Life (415-259-7090, havingalifenow.com ). She has 25 years experience in organizational behavior and development as a trainer, facilitator, consultant and coach. She also advises businesses on how to provide their clients and employees with meaningful advice about aging and retirement.

As innovations in technology such as robotics, […]

Digital future comes with job loss, social benefit gain trade-offs

Digital future comes with job loss, social benefit gain trade-offs

Businesses are rushing to adopt artificial intelligence and embrace the Internet of Things, but the impact of new technologies will slow for consumers over the next few years. That is the opinion of futurologist professor William Webb in his latest book, “Our Digital Future.”

Webb notes that while we have been “promised flying cars, living buildings and holographic displays, we may have to be content with 140 characters, Siri and Alexa for some time to come,” he suggests.

“While digital technology has changed our lives completely, for the better and worse, with always-on connectivity and the likes of Facebook, Amazon and […]

Workers Displaced by Automation Should Try a New Job: Caregiver

Workers Displaced by Automation Should Try a New Job: Caregiver

Getty Images Sooner or later, the US will face mounting job losses due to advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Automation has emerged as a bigger threat to American jobs than globalization or immigration combined. A 2015 report from Ball State University attributed 87 percent of recent manufacturing job losses to automation. Soon enough, the number of truck and taxi drivers, postal workers, and warehouse clerks will shrink. What will the 60 percent of the population that lacks a college degree do? How will this vulnerable part of the workforce find both an income and the sense of […]

The Threat of Automation: An Empty Tomorrow

The Threat of Automation: An Empty Tomorrow

The rise of automation and the jobless workplace is not a problem for our parents or teachers, it is our problem. Corporations don’t need to fire employees to automate; all they need to do is stop hiring, and they have. The advent of the jobless society is slow, steady and ultimately only destructive to our generation and its inheritors. A college degree is no guarantee either, even one from a prestigious institution (cough cough); millennials maintain their cripplingly low employment rates despite having almost a third more college graduates than the silent generation, and twice as many as baby […]