Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

A3 Releases White Paper Exploring Automation and Job Growth

ANN ARBOR, Mich.–( BUSINESS WIRE )–Today the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) released a new white paper exploring the impact of automation on employment growth, marking the opening of Automate 2017, North America’s leading show devoted to cutting-edge automation technology and business innovation at Chicago’s McCormick Place April 3-6. More than 20,000 attendees are expected to attend Automate 2017, from all 50 states and more than 70 countries. The new white paper titled “ Work in the Automation Age: Sustainable Careers Today and Into the Future ” examines the impact of automation technologies on the evolving job market, the […]

Robots are coming—but to help, not take over

Robots are coming—but to help, not take over

The robot revolution is on its way, bringing more friends and tools for WALL-E, C-3PO and HAL 9000.

National Robotics Week, April 8–15, will celebrate new advances in automation and emerging STEM careers as well as expanding the public perception of robotics. The Museum of Science and Industry is presenting four robotic-themed programs April 8–9 and 14–15, featuring interactive robots for children, work from local universities and talks from experts in the field.

Kathleen McCarthy, director of collections at MSI, traveled to Japan to view its innovative robotic technology and wants to replicate the “amazing experience” for Chicagoans through the events, […]

Artificial intelligence probably won’t kill you, but it could take your job: Don Pittis

Artificial intelligence probably won't kill you, but it could take your job: Don Pittis

Arnold Schwarzenegger hams it up with his alter ego the Terminator. Experts say the danger is not that AI is too strong, but that we will trust it when it is too weak. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters) Computer scientist Zachary Chase Lipton hates the term artificial intelligence, which he says gives people the wrong idea. He prefers to call it machine learning.

Lipton, who used to earn his living as a musician, would be a dream example for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who are hoping to retrain Canada’s underemployed to serve a resurgent artificial intelligence industry.

But the […]

New Study Finds That Six Jobs Are Lost for Every Robot Added to the Workforce

New Study Finds That Six Jobs Are Lost for Every Robot Added to the Workforce

The Real Impact of Automation

Few subjects are quite as divisive right now as the potential impact of automation on employment. Some, like U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin , believe we needn’t be concerned, while others assert that we are already at the start of the biggest workforce upheaval since the Industrial Revolution.

Now, a new paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) puts an actual number to the threat of automation: each industrial robot introduced in the workforce between 1990 and 2007 coincided with the elimination of 6.2 jobs within the commute area. Wages also saw […]

Robots and automation are going white collar – but they’re not here to steal your job just yet

Robots and automation are going white collar - but they're not here to steal your job just yet

Reporters called it the robot, but its physical presence was hardly felt.

It was almost invisible, just a Microsoft Excel macro that could write a fairly detailed stock-market report that could then be edited and polished by a human journalist.

But when Reuters introduced the robot to its newsroom in 2007 – just before the financial crisis – it was an early sign that manufacturing was not the only industry that automation was infiltrating.White-collar workers in fields like journalism, finance, medicine, and law are seeing an increasing use of machines, but one much less damaging to workers’ job prospects. Unlike in […]

Robots and automation are going white collar — but they’re not here to steal your job just yet

Robots and automation are going white collar — but they’re not here to steal your job just yet

The anthropomorphic robot named hitchBOT sits on the shoulder of Highway 102 to begin its 6,000-kilometer cross-country journey, outside Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 27, 2014.

Reporters called it the robot, but its physical presence was hardly felt.

It was almost invisible, just a Microsoft Excel macro that could write a fairly detailed stock-market report that could then be edited and polished by a human journalist.But when Reuters introduced the robot to its newsroom in 2007 — just before the financial crisis — it was an early sign that manufacturing was not the only industry that automation was infiltrating.White-collar workers in fields […]

The robot debate is over: jobs are gone

The robot debate is over: jobs are gone

LONDON: In 2013, the Oxford Martin School released a report that looked at the automation of work, assessing the likelihood that robots and other technologies would replace humans. It concluded that of the 702 job categories examined, 47 percent were susceptible to automation within the next 20 years. The report completely upended our ideas about the future of work.

Now, a new report by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the United States is set to be an even bigger wake-up call. Written by economists Daron Acemoglu (MIT) and Pascual Restrepo (Boston University), it not only adds support […]

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt doesn’t think robots will kill jobs in the near future

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt doesn’t think robots will kill jobs in the near future

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt says the fear of robots taking jobs in the short term is overblown.

“I think before we go to the phase where it’s only robots at every bench, we are going to go through a phase of smarter workers,” he told reporters on March 30.

GE has been investing heavily in futuristic manufacturing techniques. Immelt said that in Lafayette, Indiana—where GE Aviation is ramping up production for portions of its new fuel-efficient LEAP aircraft engine—”we’re going to add workers, but probably not as many as we would have twenty years ago” and each worker will be […]

Automation will degrade more jobs that it will eliminate

Automation will degrade more jobs that it will eliminate

In the just-released April issue of Brooklyn Rail , Jason E. Smith dismantles much of the conventional wisdom6 about impending automation. He notes that in both developed and developing countries, the so-called "service sector" employs the vast majority of workers, and will continue to do so for decades to come. This sector, which includes teachers, retail workers, and home healthcare aids, is inherently resistant to automation. This does not mean, however, that we face a future and well-paid full employment. Rather, the service sector, which offers precarious jobs at dismal wages, will be the site of whatever job growth […]

Automation: Bringing back some jobs isn’t the answer

Automation: Bringing back some jobs isn’t the answer

“Job creation” is, once again, a major national talking point. The U.S. economy is strong, yet while unemployment is at a record low, poverty is at a record high. This is because many of the jobs that are available are low-paying, contract-based and/or routine-based (e.g. Lyft driver, cashier).

While our president boasts of bringing back jobs, there is a more sustainable way to support workers. Bringing back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. is not the solution. Those jobs are no longer relevant or reliable. Besides, workers in Taiwan, China and Vietnam, our current manufacturing workforce, will soon lose their jobs […]