Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

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 […]

How CaliBurger’s Flippy the Burger Flipper May Start the Trend of Robots Replacing Fast Food Workers

How CaliBurger's Flippy the Burger Flipper May Start the Trend of Robots Replacing Fast Food Workers

Flippy the Burger Flipper May Begin The Trend Of Replacing Fast Food Workers With Robots Flippy so far does "simple" task of cooking and preparing burgers. However, the robot’s inner artificial intelligence software allows it to be "trainable" and adaptable. This means it can be set to perform other dirty or dangerous tasks in a commercial kitchen.
(Photo : Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The fast food industry remains to be one of the highest-earning industries in the market. With a very lucrative job market in play, every move industry giants make are very sensitive, which is why it’s a surprise […]

General Electrics CEO claims robots WON’T steal human jobs (but his company invests billions in them)

General Electrics CEO claims robots WON'T steal human jobs (but his company invests billions in them)

Fears of robot automation muscling humans out of jobs have grown exponentially as automated technology has evolved, especially in the manufacturing industry.

But General Electrics CEO Jeff Immelt claims that robots won’t steal human jobs any time soon.

Immelt, 61, states that the idea of robots stealing human jobs is ‘more of a Silicon Valley vision than the real world.’The comments are likely to stir controversy as General Electrics, with more than 300,000 employees worldwide, has already invested billions in automation.Scroll down for video General Electrics CEO Jeff Immelt (pictured) claims that robots won’t steal human jobs any time soon. Immelt, […]

One industrial robot takes away six human jobs

One industrial robot takes away six human jobs

Steve Jurvetson via flickr Adding one industrial robot to the workforce will reduce employment by 6.2 workers and reduce wages for the local economy, says a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research . What’s more, there aren’t any significant increases in other jobs in the impacted areas to offset the losses – one finding that surprised even the study’s authors.

Economists Daron Acemoglu of MIT and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University looked at data spanning between 1990 and 2007 to reach their findings. Overall, they saw that one new industrial robot per thousand workers reduced the employment-to-population […]

We need a New Deal to address the economic risks of automation

We need a New Deal to address the economic risks of automation

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has a surprisingly naive take on the issue of AI and robots replacing human jobs.

Mnuchin, who said earlier, that human obsolescence is “not even on our radar screen…50–100 more years away” — and that he’s “not worried at all.” For those of us in the tech industry, it’s clear his timescale is inaccurate and that, if the government is complacent about AI, the country is setting itself up for an economic shock.

There’s been downward pressure on jobs since the Industrial Revolution due to leaps in productivity brought about by human ingenuity and lucky discoveries. This […]

Robots, not immigrants, are taking American jobs

Robots, not immigrants, are taking American jobs

Top of the Ticket The robots are coming! The robots are coming! They are coming and they will completely alter our economic reality. However, instead of planning for this revolutionary change, America’s politicians — from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders on down — continue to cling to the illusion that, with the right tinkering, there can be enough jobs enough for everyone, just like in the good old days.

Well, the good old days are gone, and a story on the Futurism website demonstrates why: Changying Precision Technology Co.’s cellphone factory in China recently replaced 90% of its workers with […]

Unsettling New Statistics Reveal Just How Quickly Robots Can Replace Human Workers

Unsettling New Statistics Reveal Just How Quickly Robots Can Replace Human Workers

They don’t sleep, don’t need health insurance, and usually don’t embarrass themselves at the work Christmas party. Robots might make employers happy, but new research shows just what kind of impact this could have on the structure of the US economy and the shape of its future workforce.

A pair of economists from MIT and Boston University have published a report at the US National Bureau of Economic Research outlining the cost of swapping human labour for programmed machines in areas such as manufacture, agriculture, research and development, and even education.

The results aren’t exactly great for workers in those labour […]

Good Society: What Needs To Be Done

Good Society: What Needs To Be Done

Marc Saxer Trump, Brexit, Le Pen. Right-wing populist revolts are shaking the liberal order. Progressives, however, lack the strength to rein in global capitalism, break the neoliberal hegemony and fight back that populist challenge. To save democracy, we need to get down to work on three construction sites: a new economic model, an identity narrative and a new approach to organizing struggles. The Human Economy

Ever since the Second Industrial Revolution petered out, global capitalism has faced a demand crisis. If you now think that all we need is to stop austerity, think again. Over the past decades, developed […]