Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

How to survive the robot-fueled jobs apocalypse

How to survive the robot-fueled jobs apocalypse

Credit: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch If rumors that James Cameron is interested in picking up Terminator 6 prove true, perhaps Bill Gates will be in the running for a cameo.

Gates recently cautioned that robots are replacing humans in a wide range of jobs, and he proposed implementing a robot tax as a way to temporarily slow the spread of automation. He was promptly — and predictably — trashed by a bevy of economists . [ Roundup: TensorFlow, Spark MLlib, Scikit-learn, MXNet, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, and Caffe machine learning and deep learning frameworks. | Get a digest of the day’s top tech […]

Automation, not foreign trade, kills American jobs

Donald Trump boasts that his "America First" trade and economic policies are bringing well-paid manufacturing jobs back to America. That’s probably his biggest "deliverable" to Trump voters. But is this claim true?

Trump won the presidency partly because he voiced the anger of American workers about lost jobs and stagnant wages. But in the process, he fundamentally misled the country by claiming that trade is the major cause of job losses, and that renegotiating trade agreements would save the middle class.

What Trump is offering is a palliative that has raised false hopes. He implies that a few good trade deals […]

Automation Takes Hold, But Humans Still Needed

A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute — A Future That Works: Automation, Employment, and Productivity — highlights trends in automation technologies — including robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning — and their effects on businesses and economies worldwide. Some of the key findings of the report are highlighted below: Automating activities can reduce errors and improve quality, while improving productivity and, thereby, business performance.

Although less than 5 percent of all occupations can be fully automated, about 60 percent of occupations are comprised of at least 30 percent of activities that can be automated. Importantly, more occupations […]

Automation Poses No Doomsday Scenario for Jobs in Canada

March 16, 2017 – Automation poses no doomsday scenario for jobs in Canada, suggests a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Future Shock? The Impact of Automation on Canada’s Labour Market,” authors Matthias Oschinski and Rosalie Wyonch find that a drastic shift in employment due to automation is unlikely in the near future, although particular industries and types of occupations will be disrupted more than others.

Despite recent alarmist claims that large portions of the Canadian workforce will soon be unemployed, the authors caution policymakers from hitting the panic button. “We find no evidence of an imminent threat […]

Automation Poses No Doomsday Scenario for Jobs in Canada – C.D. Howe Institute

TORONTO, March 16, 2017 /CNW/ – Automation poses no doomsday scenario for jobs in Canada, suggests a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In "Future Shock? The Impact of Automation on Canada’s Labour Market," authors Matthias Oschinski and Rosalie Wyonch find that a drastic shift in employment due to automation is unlikely in the near future, although particular industries and types of occupations will be disrupted more than others.

Despite recent alarmist claims that large portions of the Canadian workforce will soon be unemployed, the authors caution policymakers from hitting the panic button. "We find no evidence of an […]

Making George Jetson pay taxes on Rosie robot

Making George Jetson pay taxes on Rosie robot

In-Shape Health Clubs Bet you George and Jane Jetson are wishing they hired an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper instead of hiring Rosie the robot maid.
The Jetsons — the space age cartoon family Hanna-Baebera created that lives in 2154 — may have to cut back on some luxuries if San Francisco County Supervisor Jane Kim succeeds in imposing a tax on robots and automation.
Taking a cue from musings from Microsoft founder Bill Gates — who became one of the world’s wealthiest men through software programs that reduced labor needed to perform a wide array of office work […]

CEOs: Changing technology landscape is impacting people strategy

CEOs: Changing technology landscape is impacting people strategy

Technology has the potential to create considerable disruption to employment across a range of industries. A new report considers the current trend, as well as the kinds of skills that employers cannot automate. Many of those skills themselves remain difficult to find, pointing out that considerable social transformations may be on the horizon, with people strategies likely to adapt to the new normal.

In PwC ’s latest edition of its ‘Global CEO Survey’, the 20th edition, the firm considers a range of factors affecting businesses across the globe. One key area of concern, from both the public as well […]

Over the last 60 years, automation has totally eliminated just one US occupation

Over the last 60 years, automation has totally eliminated just one US occupation

Automation often replaces human labor, but very rarely in the last sixty years has it eliminated an entire occupation.

Only one of the 270 detailed occupations listed in the 1950 US Census has since been eliminated by automation, according to a working paper by Harvard economist James Bessen. The one exception: elevator operator.

While other occupations on the 1950 list have been eliminated by factors like lack of demand (boardinghouse keepers) and technological obsolescence (telegraph operators), only elevator operators owe their occupation’s demise mostly to automation, Bessen found.The pattern of the last 60 years is likely to continue. Though almost all […]

The Robots are Coming, your Job is at Risk

The Robots are Coming, your Job is at Risk

Development & Aid , Featured , Global , Globalisation , Headlines , Labour | Opinion

Martin Khor is Executive Director of the South Centre, a think tank for developing countries, based in Geneva. Credit: John Greenfield/Flickr PENANG, Mar 15 2017 (IPS) – Last year Uber started testing driver-less cars, with humans inside to make corrections in case something goes wrong. If the tests go well, Uber will presumably replace their present army of drivers with fleets of the new cars.

Some personally owned cars can already do automatic parking. Is it a matter of time before Uber, taxi and personal […]

Fears of robots stealing our jobs are misplaced

Fears of robots stealing our jobs are misplaced

It was feared ATMs would displace bank tellers. However, deployment of ATMs reduces bank running costs, allowing banks to open more branches

A widely cited 2013 study estimates that 47 per cent of American jobs are at high risk of being computerised soon Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence by machines. The term was coined in a 1955 research proposal stating that “good progress could be made in research to get machines to solve the kinds of problems reserved for humans”. This prediction was over-optimistic at the time and AI garnered a reputation for promising more […]