Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Only 5% of young workers in Britain are in jobs that are safe from robot replacement

Only 5% of young workers in Britain are in jobs that are safe from robot replacement

The world is going through another technological revolution where greater use of robots, artificial intelligence, and automation can make business more efficient—potentially at the cost of millions of human jobs. Looking at Britain in particular, there’s a huge problem that young people face.

PwC just released a big report looking into the evolution of the workplace for young people 15 to 24 years old in the face of automation across 35 OECD countries—the richest countries in the world. Within that report, the PwC Young Workers Index is a weighted average of eight elements, which includes NEET (not in education, employment […]

Here’s why we shouldn’t fear artificial intelligence

Here’s why we shouldn’t fear artificial intelligence

Author Daniel Pink speaking at a conference in 2012. (Larry Busacca/WireImage/Wired/Getty) The rise of artificial intelligence is both celebrated and feared. At once a testament to human ingenuity that promises to revolutionize the way we live and work, AI threatens to make untold numbers of jobs obsolete. PwC, for example, estimates nearly 40 per cent of jobs in the U.S. are at risk due to automation , especially in the transportation, manufacturing and retail industries. Earlier this year, senior deputy Bank of Canada governor Carolyn Wilkins warned of job losses and greater income inequality stemming from AI and robotics […]

Don’t fear the robot: Harness automation to boost labor force

Don't fear the robot: Harness automation to boost labor force

© Getty Images The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) production index increased to 62.2 in recently released data for September, a month marked by notable and unfortunate hurricane activity. This reading is nearing the highs of this economic expansion.

The overall Purchase Manager’s Index (PMI) from the ISM which includes production but also factors such as employment, inventories, backlogs and inflation was reported at 60.8, the highest reading in more than 13 years .

Enabling Secular Growth Despite below-average economic growth and recurring geopolitical uncertainty, manufacturers here in the U.S. are reporting brisk business. However, with manufacturing gains for 100 […]

Germany has way more industrial robots than the US, but they haven’t caused job losses

Germany has way more industrial robots than the US, but they haven’t caused job losses

The rise of the robots, coming first for our jobs, then maybe our lives, is a growing concern in today’s increasingly automated world. Just today (Oct. 10), the World Bank chief said the world is on a “crash course” to automate millions of jobs. But a recent report from Germany paints a less dramatic picture: Europe’s strongest economy and manufacturing powerhouse has quadrupled the amount of industrial robots it has installed in the last 20 years, without causing human redundancies.

In 1994, Germany installed almost two industrial robots per thousand workers, four times as many as in the US. By […]

Automation and the future of work in a digital world

Automation and the future of work in a digital world

Digital technologies are at the heart of everything we do today Duncan Tait FUJITSU is a signatory to the eight UN Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which calls for economic growth and productive decent work for all by 2030.

But how will this goal be achieved in a world where digital transformation is changing the nature of work?

The rapid progress in computing power will change the way all businesses work. We can embrace change responsibly if we keep one simple premise at the heart of any development – the technology is here to help humans. At Fujitsu we call this […]

The big lie from all political parties – jobs. What jobs?

The big lie from all political parties – jobs. What jobs?

Opinionista Steven Boykey Sidley

A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that new technologies and automation will threaten, if not destroy, over 30% of jobs in the developed world by 2030. This is not the first research paper to reach similar conclusions. Think about this for a moment – we are talking about hundreds of millions of jobs disappearing into thin air, attended by inevitable social collapse and misery. So what does that mean for SA? It means that all political parties are lying. The prospects for jobs growth are zero, and the prospects for further job losses are 100%.

The sudden […]

Commentary: Automation’s past success in milling

Commentary: Automation's past success in milling

Grain-based foods, particularly flour milling, played a key role in one of the first times automation was a force in business in the developed world. The early lead does not mean that continuing progress along the same lines will see milling and baking avoid being charged with replacing human work with machines. This is especially true even if the industry’s progress at this stage might seem minimal. Assessing such possibilities has been made urgent by the focus during the last presidential election on causes of unemployment in specific areas. Indeed, blaming unemployment on the failure of government stood as […]

The grids are all right: Robots have never and will never steal jobs

The grids are all right: Robots have never and will never steal jobs

Careers They probably are not going to allow you to live in Oscar Wilde’s work-free, creative, socialist utopia either.

On a November night in 1811, angry workers smashed textile machines in Nottingham. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened – the first such incident, on 11 March of the same year, had to be disbanded by British troops. No one managed to catch a glimpse of their elusive leader, Ned Ludd.

Unbeknownst to the protesters, they had inadvertently established a long legacy of the term “Luddite” forever being associated with fears that automation would lead to mass job […]

No Work Left to Do

No Work Left to Do

Since its founding, the United States has been a nation of work. The emergence of a strong middle class in the 20 th century—long a source of national pride—was largely due to an abundance of well-paying jobs accessible to the American masses. Millions found secure jobs that required neither highly-specialized skills nor higher education. Today, college degrees have become a prerequisite for many middle-class jobs, manufacturing has been outsourced abroad, and working-class jobs have declined. Nevertheless, the belief that all Americans should have the opportunity to find a job has held strong.

But this could all change in the near […]

Fears of AI overtaking BPO jobs overstated

Fears of AI overtaking BPO jobs overstated

By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat

San Francisco — AI, now a buzzword in the IT world for artificial intelligence, is happening and changing the nature of jobs with machines learning tasks performed by humans because they are more efficient and accurate. While industry leaders conclude that automation is real and replacing human tasks, the same experts were the first to contradict saying such fears have been overstated.

Skeptics in the Philippines IT-business process management (IT-BPM) industry have already judged this sector a sunset because AI is going to displace most of the tasks in the voice sector. Already, the IT-BPM Roadmap 2022 […]