Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Better ways to help families than minimum wage increase

Better ways to help families than minimum wage increase

By Jerry Fraser

In his March 22 column, John Burbank tries to make the case that the mandated increase in the minimum wage has resulted in an increase in jobs. He cites statistics showing that job increases occurred simultaneously with an increase in the minimum wage. This is about as credible as the rooster claiming that the sun rises because he crows. Just because two events occur simultaneously doesn’t mean that one causes the other.

To further his case, he uses the restaurant industry as an example for how employers can cope with a rise in the minimum wage by […]

Why Don’t All Jobs Matter?

Why Don’t All Jobs Matter?

President Trump is still promising to bring back coal jobs. But the underlying reasons for coal employment’s decline — automation, falling electricity demand , cheap natural gas, technological progress in wind and solar — won’t go away.

Meanwhile, last week the Treasury Department officially (and correctly) declined to name China as a currency manipulator, making nonsense of everything Mr. Trump has said about reviving manufacturing.

So will the Trump administration ever do anything substantive to bring back mining and manufacturing jobs? Probably not.But let me ask a different question: Why does public discussion of job loss focus so intensely on mining […]

Robots displace millions of Manufacturing Workers in US: Automation getting Cheaper and more Common

Robots displace millions of Manufacturing Workers in US: Automation getting Cheaper and more Common

US, April 15, 2017: The impact of automation on U.S. jobs is open to debate. Robots have displaced millions of manufacturing workers, and automation is getting cheaper and more common, raising concerns it will eventually supplant far more workers in the services sector of the economy, which includes everything from truck driving to banking.

University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Ed Hess says we are just starting to see automation’s impact. “It is going to be broad and it is going to be deep,” he said, adding that “tens of millions” of jobs could be at risk.

Data from […]

Automation Impacts President Trump Bringing Manufacturing Jobs Back To The US

When Donald Trump ran for President of the United States, he ran on a platform to bring jobs back from overseas. Trump believes that the only reason why the United States lost manufacturing jobs to overseas is because the United States government forced the American people to compete with those of another country. In other words, the government decided to trade with low production cost countries, which hurt the American people in the long run. However, it’s President Trump’s goal to fix the “mess” caused by previous administration. While it seems like President Trump has the best intentions for […]

Will Robots Replace Human Drivers, Doctors and Other Workers?

Will Robots Replace Human Drivers, Doctors and Other Workers?

The impact of automation on U.S. jobs is open to debate. Robots have displaced millions of manufacturing workers, and automation is getting cheaper and more common, raising concerns it will eventually supplant far more workers in the services sector of the economy, which includes everything from truck driving to banking.

University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Ed Hess says we are just starting to see automation’s impact. "It is going to be broad and it is going to be deep," he said, adding that "tens of millions" of jobs could be at risk.

Data from the Bureau of Labor […]

We have no idea how robots and automation are impacting jobs

We have no idea how robots and automation are impacting jobs

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently convened a committee to investigate the impact of technology on jobs. In its 184-page paper , published yesterday, 13 experts in economics and computer science reported that, well, they don’t have enough data to determine exactly how automation, robots, and innovations like the on-demand economy are affecting employment.

“Despite much anecdotal evidence suggesting that big changes are under way, surprisingly little data are available to help determine which anecdotes correspond to significant country-wide or economy-wide trends,” they wrote.

Fears that automation and robots will lead to widespread unemployment have been alive and […]

Breakfast with the Fed: Jobs for the middle class swing low and high

Breakfast with the Fed: Jobs for the middle class swing low and high

Civilian labor force participation rate for people age 25 to 54. | Courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. While the national unemployment rate has returned to recent historical norms of about 4 percent, the economy needs to add another two million jobs before it reaches full employment, a Federal Reserve economist said in Louisville Thursday. David Andolfatto David Andolfatto, vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, also said that the number of middle class jobs has declined in the last decade and has given way to both low-wage and high-wage jobs, which is […]

Yes, the Robots Are Coming for Our Jobs

In fact, they’ve been coming for quite a while. (Photo: Alex Knight/Unsplash) In recent years, more than a few economists, politicians , and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have expressed concerns about the coming “robot revolution.” In fact, one of the major arguments in favor of a universal basic income is that the robots are coming for all of our jobs . It’s subject to debate exactly how far the potential effects of this revolution will trickle, but some economists estimate that up to 47 percent of American workers are at risk of losing their jobs due to automation. The World […]

Robots will change our jobs, more data will tell us how, new study suggests

Robots will change our jobs, more data will tell us how, new study suggests

FILE – In this Nov. 11, 2014 file photo, robots install rivets on a 2015 Ford F-150 truck at the Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Mich. Cheaper, better robots will replace human workers in the world’s factories at a faster pace over the next decade, pushing manufacturing labor costs down 16 percent, a report from the Boston Consulting Group said Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File) Updated 3 minutes ago

Advancements in technology, automation and robotics will change the nature of our workforce.

That is all but certain.But to what extent — how many jobs will it eliminate, create […]

Lehigh Valley manufacturing and the rise of the robots

Lehigh Valley manufacturing and the rise of the robots

VIDEO Local steel plant adding jobs… ALLENTOWN, Pa. – For many years now, America has been locked in a fierce debate about manufacturing jobs leaving the United States, where they are going, and why. When one digs into the numbers, it is indeed true that employment in the manufacturing sector has gone down. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are almost 2 million fewer factory jobs now in America than there were a decade ago.

But another less discussed fact is also true: during that same period of time, manufacturing production has gone up, after a significant dip […]