Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

These 10 cities will lose the most jobs to automation

These 10 cities will lose the most jobs to automation

Story Source Image: ISEA

Low-wage cities such as Las Vegas, Orlando, and El Paso will be hit the hardest by job automation, according to a recent report from the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis (ISEA). And the impact of automation on job losses is likely to be more severe than previously predicted, the report stated: Due to advances in machine learning and mobile robotics, jobs such as truck driving, healthcare diagnostics, and education are more likely to be affected.

“The replacement of jobs by machines has been happening continuously since the Industrial Revolution, but it’s expected to significantly accelerate in the […]

The Robots Taking Factory Jobs Just Had Their Best Quarter Ever

The Robots Taking Factory Jobs Just Had Their Best Quarter Ever

The North American robotics industry had its best first quarter ever in 2017, in terms of both money made and robots sold.

A new report published last week by the Robotic Industries Association finds that “an all-time high total of 9,773 robots valued at approximately $516 million were ordered from North American robotics companies during the first quarter of 2017.” It marks a 32 percent increase in units sold from the first quarter of 2016 and 28 percent growth in the value of the units.

There was also a 3 percent decrease in the average price of these units over the […]

How you can protect your job from automation

How you can protect your job from automation

Automation and the workplace is an issue that I’ve touched on extensively in the past year or so, and I’m broadly cynical about the doomsday scenarios that are proliferating at the moment, in no small part because of the dubious methodology many of the studies that underpin these ‘robots will take our jobs’ scenarios.

It would be churlish to believe that new technologies won’t impact the labor market though, and it will undoubtedly pay to be as agile and adaptive as possible.

A recent paper published in the European Journal of Personality examines the kind of traits we might consider developing […]

Robots Aren’t Destroying Enough Jobs — Capital Account

Robots Aren't Destroying Enough Jobs -- Capital Account

From Silicon Valley to Davos, pundits have been warning that millions of individuals will be thrown out of work by the rapid advance of automation and artificial intelligence. As economic forecasts go, this idea of a robot apocalypse is certainly chilling. It’s also baffling and misguided.

Baffling because it’s starkly at odds with the evidence, and misguided because it completely misses the problem: robots aren’t destroying enough jobs. Too many sectors, such as health care or personal services, are so resistant to automation that they are holding back the entire country’s standard of living.

"Robot" is shorthand for any device or […]

The Cycle, Not Automation, Is Keeping Oil & Gas Hiring Down

The Cycle, Not Automation, Is Keeping Oil & Gas Hiring Down

Best States For Business 2016

By MARK AGERTON

Despite recent increases in oil and gas activity, some doubt that employment in the sector will ever reach the highs of 2014 again. Producers have been cutting costs and increasing productivity, partly thanks to an increased deployment of technology. Does this technological progress mean that some of the jobs lost in the sector over the last two years will not come back, even if high oil prices do?Fears that technological progress might eliminate jobs are nothing new. While technology increases productivity and makes society wealthier, these gains aren’t always equally shared. For […]

Robots: Friends or Foes?

Robots: Friends or Foes?

“American workers will always, always, always win.”

It’s been a hallmark of his presidency: bring manufacturing jobs back to America.

“I campaigned on the promise that I will do everything in my power to bring those jobs back into America,” President Trump said.President Trump says they have been lost because of bad trade deals – but a recent study paints a different picture.“Our study was fairly clear, I think, as others are, that trade accounts for some manufacturing job losses, but the majority of those loses in manufacturing jobs are due to automation and productivity in general,” Michael Hicks said.Hicks is […]

Will robots steal all our jobs?

Will robots steal all our jobs?

A robot delivering burgers makes its way in Hamburg, Germany, on Tuesday. (Fabian Bimmer/Reuters) We have yet another study that debunks the widespread notion that robots — and other forms of automation, including “artificial intelligence” — will destroy our jobs and lead to a future of permanently high unemployment. According to the study, that would completely rewrite history, which has shown job creation to be an enduring strength of the U.S. economy.

The study (”False Alarmism: Technological Disruption and the U.S. Labor Market, 1850-2015”) comes from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank focusing on technology. The […]

Why automation in the age of AI will change the way we think of work

Why automation in the age of AI will change the way we think of work

Since the Industrial Age, automation has shifted the kind of work that humans must do. And with the current AI boom, anxiety over employment is at an all-time high. Will new technology lead to mass unemployment? Or will a whole new set of jobs replace what we have today?

Of course, the answer is nuanced, and both arguments have elements of truth. But while AI will undoubtedly create new jobs, the technology will hurt workers in lower skill jobs, according to Moshe Vardi, a computer science professor at Rice University and a leading expert in AI.

As Vardi pointed out, manufacturing […]

Are Robots ‘Stealing’ Productivity from Humans?

Are Robots ‘Stealing’ Productivity from Humans?

Society The good news: Automation is creating factory work for humans, not just destroying it. And working in today’s auto factory is safer and more engaging than ever. The bad news: The U.S. can’t find the right humans for all this new work.

BRINK talked with Ron Harbour, who co-authored and developed (with his late father Jim Harbour) The Harbour Report , the authoritative guide to auto manufacturing worldwide since it debuted in 1981. Harbour still produces The Harbour Report as an analyst with Oliver Wyman .

BRINK: You’ve been watching the automotive industry for decades. Tell me about […]

Automation, jobs, and IQ

We all know that automation takes jobs. Historically, this has produced more new jobs than were made obsolete; however, going forward, that may no longer be the case. Oxford University (2013) predicts that in the US, 47% of jobs are at risk due to computerization, and it’s hard to imagine that we’ll find productive employment for those displaced adults in that time.

The National Academies of Science says that “The education system will need to adapt to prepare individuals for the changing labor market.” But that’s either disingenuous or shallow-minded. The reality, as Dr. Jordan Peterson points out in the […]