Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Smart Factories expected to add $500 billion to global economy in next five years

Smart Factories expected to add $500 billion to global economy in next five years

Capgemini has announced that manufacturers expect their investment in smart factories to drive a 27 percent increase in manufacturing efficiency over the next five years, adding $500 billion in annual added revenue to the economy.

This research, results of which were released today by the consulting, technology, and outsourcing services company’s Smart Factories report , shows that hopes about the inevitable Digital Industrial Revolution are high. Smart factories make use of IoT, Big Data, AI, and advanced robotics to increase productivity, quality, and flexibility; by the end of 2022, manufacturers expect that 21 percent of their sites will be smart […]

Why Robots Won’t Be Coming for All Our Jobs

Why Robots Won’t Be Coming for All Our Jobs

I’ve had robots on my mind recently, and not in a “Wow, robots will make my life so much easier!” kind of way. More like, “Aaagh! Robots are coming to take the jobs of people in their 50s and 60s!”

The alarm bells rang furiously at a Milken Institute Global Conference panel I recently saw in Los Angeles (“I, Worker: Employment in the Age of Robots). And I just received a new book with the foreboding title, The Robots Are Coming , by John Pugliano, founder and money manager of Investable Wealth.

You may have heard some of the dire forecasts […]

Employment: make way for the robots

Employment: make way for the robots

Two thirds of the UK’s fastest declining professions caused by automation

Travel agents and translators on the decline, while nail technicians are in demand

Adzuna study found the wider impact of automation, as predicted by widely reported Frey & Osborne study, is yet to take root Almost two thirds of the fastest declining job roles in the UK are dropping due to automation, according to analysis released today by job search engine Adzuna . Adzuna’s comprehensive report, “ The Start Of The Curve” , identifies reasons behind the drop in demand for the fastest declining roles […]

On Process, Automation, Jobs & Social Unrest…

I grew up steeped in the concepts of the “differential diagnosis” at the dinner table. Both of my parents were physicians – at a time when this was a true rarity – and they applied the concept to solving pretty much everything. Consider the observed evidence. Determine fact versus speculation. Generate a hypothesis. Narrow the array of possible answers by elimination. Loop again and again. Evaluate the answer you generate afterwards. This family meme generates a tendency to talk things through out loud – not great for cocktail party conversation, but pretty good for solving problems.

This hypothetico-deductive approach can […]

Here’s why this former CEO of IT company is worried for young Indian engineers

Here's why this former CEO of IT company is worried for young Indian engineers

Organisations aren’t employee-centric anymore, they are viewing them as resources — as use and throw. India’s outsourcing industry is facing a crisis of identity. Clearly, any industry with the same old proposition dies a quick death. Starting with Y2K, the industry went through three clear cycles (engineering services or R&D outsourcing, remote infrastructure management and BPO) and we kept getting new ways to drive growth. However, now the industry is stalling, and unless there is a new product that is competitively priced, the industry will not grow. Due to economic slowdown in its target markets, the IT industry answered […]

Why isn’t the US job market more dynamic?

Why isn’t the US job market more dynamic?

There’s no doubt automation is affecting the US job market. It always does. For instance: US manufacturing output rises as employment falls , thanks in part to more and more capable machines helping humans become more productive. And automation is a key contributor to job market polarization. Jobs are created at the top and bottom but not so much in the middle. Machines have been replacing humans in middle-skill jobs that involve performing “routine, codifiable tasks,” as explained by economist David Autor .

But acknowledging those impacts is a lot different than claiming that the rise of the robots is […]

Layoffs in IT sector

Layoffs in IT sector

(Picture used for representational purpose only) The Information Technology industry in India is in the process of laying off thousands of its employees. The sector that symbolises the emergence of new India is expected to show the doors to over half a lakh employees thus fuelling a sense of despair in the Indian middle class that saw in it a hope and aspiration for their youth.

The industry circles attribute this to two reasons – the trend of automation and the protectionism pursued by the new dispensation in US.

Though these factors cannot be ruled out for the current jolt in […]

Why being a specialty butcher is a hot job right now

Why being a specialty butcher is a hot job right now

Craft beer makers. “Mixologist” bartenders who have far more up their sleeves than a gin and tonic. Barbers who hark back to a bygone era of style. Butchers who slice and dice their way through entire animals, with a modern focus on sourcing and sustainability. Are these the types of jobs—in fields that have been around for decades, but which have lately taken on a more specialized, artisanal focus—that can power the economy in the coming years?

Richard Ocejo may not quite go that far, but the trend epitomized by those jobs is major and unavoidable, in his eyes. Ocejo […]

Here come the job killers!

Here come the job killers!

Illustration: Ashish Asthana At Raymond Limited’s modern textile facility in Vapi, whenever a supervisor has to check up on the looms, he doesn’t go walking around the factory floor asking the workers. He just looks at a computer screen. Looms in operation, their speed, their electricity and steam consumption, their error alarms – everything is available to him at a glance. The factory rolls out 75,000 metres of fabric daily, employing 1,100 workers. Just four years ago, a traditional weaving unit would produce no more than 18,000 metres, employing 2,600 workers. Harish Chatterjee, vice-president (manufacturing) at Raymond, attributes the […]

Organised sector crucial to growth in employment: NITI Aayog

Organised sector crucial to growth in employment: NITI Aayog

Debroy also mentioned that out of a total workforce of around 500 million people, the organised sector accounted for just 100 million people at best. (PTI) Stressing on the importance self-employment outside agriculture, Dr. Bibek Debroy, Member, Niti Aayog said India is a largely informal and an unorganised economy with about 90 percent of the people employed in the informal sector. Speaking at the panel discussion on Economy of Jobs here on Thursday , Debroy highlighted that the employment situation in India has not changed substantially since the launch of the book ‘Economy of Jobs’ at FICCI’s 89th AGM […]