Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

How Automation in Africa Will Affect the Skills Needs of Employers

How Automation in Africa Will Affect the Skills Needs of Employers

By Naomi Simiyu and Audrey Cheng

Most children entering primary school right now will work in jobs that don’t exist today. According to the World Economic Forum this applies to 65% of all children entering primary school worldwide. The situation is even more dire in Africa where 80% of people between ages 20 and 30 will work in positions that do not exist today . African economies can adapt by focusing on lifelong learning in technical, cognitive and social/behavioural skills that youth need for a technologically advanced world—now and for the future.

An Increasingly Automated Africa It is estimated […]

We can beat the robots – with democracy

We can beat the robots – with democracy

Sophia told ABC radio that robots deserved more rights than humans . It’s a statement that would be of concern should your mum announce it, yet disappointingly unremarkable if uttered by some right wing think-tanky person defending job automation on a panel show.

But as Sophia is a robot herself, and one of a new robot technology generation guided by artificial intelligence that’s increasing in sophistication, the words are more than a little perturbing. Sophia is the product of Hong Kong based Hanson Robotics, and her notoriety exists not merely on the basis of her interview tactics, but because the […]

Job-killers: bank workers at forefront of ‘massive disruption’

In the eighties it was automatic teller machines. In the nineties it was mass branch closures. In the naughties, it was offshoring. Now, automation and fintech loom as the great finance sector job-killers, with fears that more jobs could follow the 6000 in cuts announced by National Australia Bank on Thursday.

For bank employees, it is a time of "massive upheaval and change" in the words of the Finance Sector Union, which says it has real concerns that more large-scale job losses are coming. NAB’s 6000 job cuts, to come over the next three years, amount to about 18 per […]

Bank Is About To Sack 6000 Staff After Making $6.6 BILLION Profit

"And as we simplify, we automate processes and things move to digital channels, we will need less people and as that happens we estimate that there will be 6,000 less people needed in three years’ time", he said.

Technology has forced the company to re-evaluate its workforce, NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn – who earns a salary of $6.7 million – said on Thursday.

The bank said its statutory net profit rose to A$5.29 billion from A$352 million from the previous year when it took a one-off charge related to the sale of its British business."Having said that, we’re hiring 2,000 […]

All That Online Shopping You’re Doing? It’s Also Bringing Jobs to Inland California

All That Online Shopping You’re Doing? It’s Also Bringing Jobs to Inland California

Distribution centers are becoming more automated, but increased demand from consumers is still creating more jobs. ( Erasmo Martinez/KQED ) The unemployment rate in Santa Clara County — the heart of Silicon Valley — is 3.8 percent. The rate is even lower in other tech-focused cities in the region, such as Cupertino, Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

The tech sector is driving those jobs, from Apple to Google to Facebook.

One of the biggest areas of growth continues to be within e-commerce. E-commerce jobs have existed in Silicon Valley since the dawn of the first dot-com era, way back in the […]

Event: The Future of Work – Automation & Employment

Event: The Future of Work - Automation & Employment

The world of work is going through a revolution. But how will this revolution affect our economy and society? Some say that digitisation, artificial intelligence and robots will create more and better jobs, prosperity and more convenient services. Others argue that it will only benefit highly skilled workers, larger businesses and more affluent consumers.

The Social Situation Monitor (SSM) team has organised this research seminar to discuss the future of work. Policymakers and researchers are invited to join the panel, consider the evidence and discuss its implications.

Panel: Grace Lordan, London School of Economics and Political Science Wolfgang Dauth, University […]

New analysis says more jobs safer from automation than previously believed

New analysis says more jobs safer from automation than previously believed

Credit: pathdoc shutterstock We all want to know how many jobs will be threatened by the rise of robots and technology. You might feel vulnerable if your job is one that could be affected.

But thanks to a new report , 27% of the 160 million people in the United States labour force can breathe easier knowing their jobs are safer than they thought.

That’s 43 million living, breathing and working people in America. By extension, that’s three million Australians, nine million Brits and 27% of most advanced economy workforces.Their prospects have been re-rated in new work by a group that […]

The Future Of Work: New Underclass, Dystopian Reality? – Analysis

The Future Of Work: New Underclass, Dystopian Reality? – Analysis

The dust will take decades to settle on the key issue of precisely how much technology and artificial intelligence (AI) will displace human labour. It is clear the near future will see a sizeable proportion of jobs worldwide threatened and substituted by automation, machine learning, or both. What does this mean for national security?

By Shashi Jayakumar and Eugene Goh*

It is increasingly apparent that jobs commonly reckoned to be “safe” may in fact be candidates for an AI – Artificial Intelligence – takeover, with many knowledge workers themselves candidates for displacement. Research by McKinsey from 2015 suggests that current technologies […]

Robots are coming to a building site near you

Robots are coming to a building site near you

For years the growth lobby has argued that Australia needs to run high levels of immigration in order to alleviate so-called skills shortages and to mitigate an ageing population, despite the Department of Employment showing that Australia’s skills shortage “remains low by historical standards” and Australia’s labour underutilisation rate tracking at high levels: One factor the immigration boosters continually ignore is the risk that the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence could replace many of today’s jobs, leading to an even larger pool of underemployed and underutilised workers.

Back in July, Seek’s chief executive, Andrew Bassat, warned of an “employment […]

The Data Doesn’t Back Up That “Automation Creates Jobs” Theory

The Data Doesn’t Back Up That “Automation Creates Jobs” Theory

Fairly regularly, I receive pitches from companies talking about the benefits of automation, and how the streamlined workplace is nothing but beneficial for workers, who will be able to work faster and be happier. These companies tout that automation will “support you in becoming an innovative visionary” and “isn’t going to steal your job, it’s going to make it more fun.”

I’m a skeptic.

I’ll admit that data and stats don’t always tell the full story, but they can offer a few solid points of understanding to begin a discussion with. If we don’t turn to the facts about how automation […]