Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

End of the checkout line: the looming crisis for American cashiers

End of the checkout line: the looming crisis for American cashiers

he day before a fully automated grocery store opened its doors in 1939, the inventor Clarence Saunders took out a full page advertisement in the Memphis Press-Scimitar warning “old duds” with “cobwebby brains” to keep away. The Keedoozle , with its glass cases of merchandise and high-tech system of circuitry and conveyer belts, was cutting edge for the era and only those “of spirit, of understanding” should dare enter.

Inside the gleaming Tennessee store, shoppers inserted a key into a slot below their chosen items, producing a ticker tape list that, when fed into a machine, sent the goods traveling […]

Labor-short Japan more at home with automation than US

Labor-short Japan more at home with automation than US

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 […]

Australia Needs to Embrace Automation to Survive

Australia Needs to Embrace Automation to Survive

Automation needs to be utilised by Australia if we’re to compete in the global economy.

The automation of the working world is often viewed with a negative run-on effect – people lose their jobs, industries are completely disrupted and robots eventually take over. Technological disruption has created new jobs – social media managers, for example. A recent report refutes all this fear-mongering, however, noting that Australia would actually be better off if we embraced automation rather than shying away from it.

‘The Automation Advantage’, published last week by AlphaBeta and commissioned by Google Australia, argues that automation could be the key […]

Rhetoric over: Drive to ease NAFTA impact on workers begins

Rhetoric over: Drive to ease NAFTA impact on workers begins

WASHINGTON (AP) — Of all the trade deals he lambasted on the campaign trail as threats to American workers, President Donald Trump reserved particular scorn for one: The North American Free Trade Agreement.

The NAFTA agreement with Mexico and Canada was "the worst trade deal in history," candidate Trump declared. He accused NAFTA of having swollen America’s trade deficit with Mexico, pulled factories south of the border and killed jobs across the United States.

Trump promised to renegotiate the 23-year-old deal — or walk away from it. Now the time has come. Five days of talks aimed at overhauling NAFTA […]

Study Shows That Minimum Wage Hikes Put More Jobs at Risk of Automation

Study Shows That Minimum Wage Hikes Put More Jobs at Risk of Automation

Researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research have published a paper noting a relationship between automation and the minimum wage. From 1980 to 2015, a $1 increase in the minimum wage resulted in a 0.43 percent decline in automatable jobs. Benefiting Whom, Exactly?

The desire for a higher wage is pretty self explanatory. However, the impact a minimum wage increase could have on society is not so clear.

In an effort to shed light on this subject, researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) conducted a study , and they’ve concluded that a minimum wage hike might […]

Governments Destroy Jobs, Not Automation

Governments Destroy Jobs, Not Automation

A few weeks ago, road and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said that driverless cars would be banned in India in order to “protect jobs.” This kind of fallacious argument is nothing new. For the past year or so, newspapers have frequently published articles arguing that automation is to blame for job losses. Even seemingly intelligent people like Bill Gates have made outlandish suggestions, such as taxing robots , to compensate workers who might lose their jobs as a result.

Bad government policies are the root cause for unemployment.

By doing a superficial analysis, one may indeed say that automation causes job […]

So many good U.S. jobs, so few qualified workers

So many good U.S. jobs, so few qualified workers

NORWOOD, Ohio – Herbie Mays is 3M proud, and it shows — in the 3M shirt he wears, in the 3M ring he earned after three decades at the company’s plant in suburban Cincinnati, in the way he shows off a card from a 3M supervisor, praising Mays as "a GREAT employee."

But it’s all nostalgia.

Mays’ last day at 3M ( MMM ) was in March. Bent on cutting costs and refocusing its portfolio, the company decided to close the plant that made bandages, knee braces and other health care supplies and move work to its plant in Mexico.At 62, […]

As the laid-off struggle, high-tech US plants offer jobs

As the laid-off struggle, high-tech US plants offer jobs

Herbie Mays is 3M proud, and it shows — in the 3M shirt he wears; in the 3M ring he earned after three decades at the company’s plant in suburban Cincinnati; in the way he shows off a card from a 3M supervisor, praising Mays as "a GREAT employee."

But it’s all nostalgia.

Mays’ last day at 3M was in March. Bent on cutting costs and refocusing its portfolio, the company decided to close the plant that made bandages, knee braces and other health care supplies and move work to its plant in Mexico.At 62, Mays is unemployed and wants to […]

High-tech US plants offer jobs even as the laid-off struggle

High-tech US plants offer jobs even as the laid-off struggle

With more factory jobs now demanding education, technical know-how or specialized skills, many US plants are struggling to fill positions. (Aug. 15)

Media: Associated Press

NORWOOD, Ohio (AP) — Herbie Mays is 3M proud, and it shows — in the 3M shirt he wears; in the 3M ring he earned after three decades at the company’s plant in suburban Cincinnati; in the way he shows off a card from a 3M supervisor, praising Mays as "a GREAT employee."But it’s all nostalgia.Mays’ last day at 3M was in March. Bent on cutting costs and refocusing its portfolio, the company decided […]

But what about the human cost of automation?

But what about the human cost of automation?

What about the humans? New research from recruitment agency Robert Half has outlined the jobs which are under threat from automation, but when are we actually going to talk seriously about the dark side of artificial intelligence (AI), asks Telecoms.com ( Banking Technology ‘s sister publication).

Now we’re not talking about Arnie coming back from the future, blowing up buildings and dropping memorable one-liners, but every step made towards a more efficient AI application is another step for someone towards the dole queue. The replacement of humans by machines is nothing new, but this revolution is one which is seemingly […]