Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

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 […]

Automation is the solution—not the problem—when it comes to job creation

Automation is the solution—not the problem—when it comes to job creation

Coming off a record year for sales of robot orders and shipments, Jeff Burnstein, President of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3; Ann Arbor, MI), noted that “automation played a vital role in spurring economic growth in the North American manufacturing and services industries in 2016. We anticipate accelerated growth based on smarter, more connected and more collaborative robots in the coming years.”

According to a 2016 year-end report from the Robotic Industries Association (RIA; Ann Arbor, MI), orders for robots in 2016 spiked 61% in assembly applications, nearly double the number for the food and consumer goods industries (32%). […]

VIDEO: How Industrial Automation Promotes Job Growth

VIDEO: How Industrial Automation Promotes Job Growth

There’s a widely held and erroneous perception that industrial automation is job killer, but in reality, it’s quite the opposite, said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3).

A3 recently released a whitepaper titled Working in the Automation Age: Sustainable Careers Today and into the Future , which discredits the theory that automation hurts jobs and promotes how modern men and women can find more meaningful, safer and more enjoyable work.

“The hysterical stories keep being printed in the media, but the robot we see doesn’t match the idea of robots being a job killer,” said Burnstein. “If […]

Focus on humans rather than robots

Focus on humans rather than robots

The technology tool Cannot be allowed to rule. – PHOTOCREO MICHAL BEDNAREK/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM In an era of jobless growth, automation is fraught with problems. A push to small rather than large businesses is called for

The Prime Minister wants every note given to Cabinet for approval to have a paragraph stating what implication the proposal will have for job creation, said Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman, in an interview. This is very good news. Because without faster and more widespread creation of livelihoods and jobs for its huge youth population, the country will be faced with large social and […]

Balancing out robots

Balancing out robots

Industrial automation good but beware of pitfall

The Maruti-Suzuki factory at Manesar is whirring at full capacity; 20,000 tonnes of steel every month come into this plant and over a 1,000 cars roll out of this single factory every day. It is also the factory that in 2012, made headlines for all the wrong reasons when a group of disgruntled workers set fire to an office block, murdering an executive in the process. The case against the workers was judged earlier this year and 13 of the guilty were given life sentences. An unintended consequence of the workers’ protest, however, […]