Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Why minimum wage hikes mean fewer jobs

Why minimum wage hikes mean fewer jobs

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government is giving low-skilled workers reason to worry their jobs will be replaced by machines — thanks to her plan to hike the minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next 18 months. (POSTMEDIA NETWORK/FILES) “Will robots take my job?” Google receives this query more than 10,000 times a month.

In an age where technology is advancing at breakneck speed, it’s an understandable question.

And for some Ontarians, it’s a legitimate concern.Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government is giving low-skilled workers reason to worry their jobs will be replaced by machines — thanks to her plan to hike the […]

So what happens if/when automation-driven post-employment happens but a UBI just doesn’t?

So what happens if/when automation-driven post-employment happens but a UBI just doesn't?

Can’t predict with certainty, but I’m tipsy and can speculate: It starts with imperfect automation, where the cost of automating various jobs drops so low that most businesses can’t help but automate, even if it won’t work quite right. At this stage, the technology either is too imperfect or the ‘perfect’ version remains cost ineffective. Payroll is drastically slashed, and the humans hired on are only there to handle the problems that fall through the cracks, and interface with customers who don’t want to deal with the new tech.

ex. Instead of having a bunch of cashiers, you […]

Preparing for more robots in Yukon mining

Opinion 0

Mining creates jobs but jobs are fickle things. Not only humans can do them. Robots and computers can also do them too, and usually do them cheaper and better than humans

Signs of that are obvious, Automated Teller Machines have somewhat replaced human bank tellers. Even ATMs are now being somewhat replaced by online banking applications on smartphones and computers. Certain coffee shops now have automated coffee makers. Press a button and instant, freshly brewed java pours into your cup. Think of how many baristas those machines have replaced.The mining industry is not immune to these […]

Editorial: Prepare for automated unemployment

Editorial: Prepare for automated unemployment

Employment competition in the new job market will increasingly pit humans against robots, and the smart money is riding on the latter, because humans are shaping up to be no match for machines when it comes to entry-level employment opportunities.

In “Lower Mainland eateries starving for workers” (Business in Vancouver issue 1450; August 15-21], Ian Tostenson, president of the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association, noted that difficulty in attracting and retaining workers is a theme common to large chains and smaller local restaurants alike.

In decades past, the restaurant trade was an instructive entry point for young people seeking workplace […]

Brunell: U.S. must be cautious on taxing robots

Brunell: U.S. must be cautious on taxing robots

Don Brunell, retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, is a business analyst, writer, and columnist. He lives in Vancouver and can be contacted at TheBrunells@msn.com.

Last February, the European Parliament rejected a tax on robots, but took the first steps to regulate their development and deployment. The legislation also aims to establish liability for the actions of robots including self-driving vehicles.

Europe’s governing body, while rejecting the tax to be dedicated to worker training, overwhelmingly passed a resolution to study regulating robots.In an interview with Quartz.com, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he believes that the government […]

Artificial intelligence will erode job security, say experts

Artificial intelligence will erode job security, say experts

Canada needs to build safety nets for workers losing their jobs to robots, according to report author Jobs at manufacturing plants are already being lost to robots. Experts say more will be on their way out as more jobs become automated and Ottawa must invest more in skills training to mitigate economic impacts | Pavel L Photo and Video/Shutterstock In The Jetsons ’ world , technology has rid humanity of nuisances like housework and commuting. Instead, the cartoon family relies on its robot housekeeper and son Elroy gets to school on an automated hover pod.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation […]

Toledo has nation’s highest concentration of robots in work force

Toledo has nation's highest concentration of robots in work force

Metropolitan Toledo has the highest concentration of industrial robots relative to its work force of anywhere in the country, a good-news, bad-news finding that points to the region’s strong embrace of advanced manufacturing, but also a potential sign that human labor is being replaced by machines.

As part of an upcoming report on disruptive effects of automation, the Brookings Institution set out to pinpoint where the nation’s robotic footholds have been gained. Robots install windows on a Jeep Liberty at the Toledo Assembly Plant in 2011. A recent report by the Brookings Institution indicated that Toledo has the highest concentration […]

Jobs at stake in B.C.’s minimum-wage hikes, critics say

Jobs at stake in B.C.’s minimum-wage hikes, critics say

Increase targets workers reliant on minimum wage, but trade-off could be lower demand for young workers and tighter margins for small businesses B.C.’s minimum wage is set to increase to $15 by 2021, a move that is being praised as overdue by some, though restaurant-sector leaders fear that the hike is being implemented too quickly | Sorbis/Shutterstock B.C.’s plan to raise the province’s hourly minimum wage to $15 by 2021 will benefit some workers but will also reduce demand for young workers, increase prices and squeeze margins for small businesses, especially in the food services sector, experts say.

The B.C. […]

Sewbots Could Make 1.2M T-Shirts Annually at New Arkansas Factory

Sewbots Could Make 1.2M T-Shirts Annually at New Arkansas Factory

Tianyuan Garments Company is redefining apparel manufacturing with its newest employees—sewbots. On Friday, the Chinese clothing manufacturer announced that it will open a new garment factory in Arkansas next year, which will run primarily with the use of autonomous robots and a few human supervisors, Fast Company reported .

Once factory operations are in full swing, the 21 production lines are expected to produce 1.2 million T-shirts annually, at a total production cost that’s competitive with apparel companies using low-wage countries to manufacture garments. Tianyuan Garments Company is one of the first businesses to use the sewbots, which could advance […]

Is catastrophe the only cure for inequality?

Is catastrophe the only cure for inequality?

Author Walter Scheidel explains why violence is “the great leveller”.

Inequality, authors of the left usually argue, is not inevitable. The gap between the rich and the poor was made by man and can be undone by man. But Walter Scheidel’s recent book on the subject, The Great Leveller , ends on a sobering note: “All of us who prize economic equality would do well to remember that with the rarest of exceptions, it was only ever brought forth in sorrow.”

In his 528-page study of inequality “from the Stone Age to the 21st century”, the Stanford historian finds that significant […]