Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Will robots and artificial intelligence take your job?

Will robots and artificial intelligence take your job?

“THEY took our jobs!” say the rednecks in South Park whenever someone “steals” their jobs.

But rather than losing your jobs to immigrants, as the rednecks in South Park belief, the more plausible and larger threat to your employment comes from robots and artificial intelligence (AI).

This trend has not the smallest minds worried. Bill Gates proposes to tax robots which take over people’s jobs to fund government spending.This sounds like a bad idea: taxing investments which improve productivity ultimately benefits society as a whole.Yet the sentiment is understandable, especially as the gains of automation are unlikely to be spread fairly […]

Robots are affecting jobs in Ohio — and maybe politics, too

Robots are affecting jobs in Ohio — and maybe politics, too

WASHINGTON — Robots are playing a bigger role in American manufacturing than ever, and they are spreading rapidly. Yet their impact is playing out differently throughout Ohio.

For example, although Ohio ranks second in the nation for the number of industrial robots in 2015 — 20,415 altogether, according to the Brookings Institution — there are more than three times as many industrial robots on a per-human-worker basis in the Toledo area as in Akron — and as in Cincinnati, Cleveland or Columbus, too.

This has implications for the workforce, for politics and, of course, for the economy. They’re both positive and […]

New Study Suggests Minimum Wage Increases Have Small Effect on Blue-Collar Jobs

New Study Suggests Minimum Wage Increases Have Small Effect on Blue-Collar Jobs

Marshall/Rex Shutterstock via ZUMA The minimum wage debate has settled into a dreary format: you can pretty much guess what a paper concludes just by reading the author’s name on the title page. The latest entry is from Grace Lordan and David Neumark, and since Neumark has never met a minimum wage he liked, it’s a pretty good guess that his latest paper describes job losses from increases in the minimum wage. Sure enough, it does.

That doesn’t mean he’s wrong, though, and the issue described in the paper is a real one: a higher minimum wage increases the financial […]

Machines, not Americans, could replace immigrant workers

Jim Bogart sees a growing trend in his patch of America: Farmers are turning more and more to machines because they can’t find enough workers to harvest fruits and vegetables.

It’s an issue costing California farmers millions of dollars and, they argue, it will eventually mean higher food prices at supermarkets.

“With the shortage of workers, we have to develop other means to help us grow, harvest and process our crops — robotics, mechanization, automation,” says Bogart, who is president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California.The farmers in Bogart’s area aren’t alone. Farmers across the state are investing more in […]

If we want a post-work future, we need to reconsider what counts as work in the first place

If we want a post-work future, we need to reconsider what counts as work in the first place

30 per cent of UK jobs could potentially be automated away by the early 2030s Work isn’t working anymore. Labour productivity has fallen in the UK since the financial crisis ; 13.5 million people are living in low-income households; real wages are falling and the Gini coefficient, which measures inequality, is rising.

The sustainability and quality of jobs in our economy is also decreasing – 7.1 million workers now face precarious working conditions , meaning that uncertainty (and for many, anxiety) itself is now built into our employment system. According to some estimates , 30 per cent of UK jobs […]

Start Planning for Automation-Related Job Loss

I sign my name to this petition so my policymakers know that I care deeply about net job loss due to automation and artificial intelligence and want significant resources allocated immediately to determine how to keep me and my fellow citizens out of poverty when there are no longer jobs for all of us.

We are concerned citizens who believe that massive net job loss resulting from automation and artificial intelligence is coming in the near future. If our government does not plan for this, the resulting catastrophe that may ensue will end the freedoms and protections that we […]

Can online shopping absorb traditional retail workers?

Can online shopping absorb traditional retail workers?

HARI SREENIVASAN: But first: As more and more shopping is done online, what will become of the 16 million Americans who work in the retail industry?

Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, takes a look. It’s part of our series Making Sense, which airs Thursdays on the NewsHour.

JENNIFER RICHTER , Former Regional Director, Macy’s: This is a great, great, great basic black top. PAUL SOLMAN: This summer, Jennifer Richter opened her own clothing boutique online. JENNIFER RICHTER: This is just the future of retail. The brick-and-mortar stores, they’re just going to keep trimming the fat and keep eliminating positions. PAUL […]

Make-work schemes need to come back

Make-work schemes need to come back

Wouldn’t a New Deal-style make-work programme be superior to institutionalized loafing? Photo: Bloomberg Many assume that universal basic income will be one of Mark Zuckerberg’s policy platforms when he runs for president. The volume has been turned up to 11 on such speculation since his Harvard commencement speech back in May. In summary, he said people think our labour force has been altered structurally by automation, that some people will be permanently left out of it, and that we should explore ideas like paying everyone a subsistence-level basic income. If people want to earn more, they can.

Libertarians like universal […]

Make-work schemes need to come back

Make-work schemes need to come back

Wouldn’t a New Deal-style make-work programme be superior to institutionalized loafing? Photo: Bloomberg Many assume that universal basic income will be one of Mark Zuckerberg’s policy platforms when he runs for president. The volume has been turned up to 11 on such speculation since his Harvard commencement speech back in May. In summary, he said people think our labour force has been altered structurally by automation, that some people will be permanently left out of it, and that we should explore ideas like paying everyone a subsistence-level basic income. If people want to earn more, they can.

Libertarians like universal […]

How Japan’s lifetime-employment system helps temper the automation dilemma

MORIYA, Japan — Thousands upon thousands of cans are filled with beer, capped and washed, wrapped into six-packs, and boxed at dizzying speeds — 1,500 a minute, to be exact — on humming conveyor belts that zip and wind in a sprawling factory near Tokyo.

Nary a soul is in sight in this picture-perfect image of Japanese automation.

The machines do all the heavy lifting at this plant run by Asahi Breweries, Japan’s top brewer. The human job is to make sure the machines do the work right and to check on the quality the sensors are monitoring.“Basically, nothing goes wrong. […]