Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Jobs and the Artificial Intelligence Debate

Jobs and the Artificial Intelligence Debate

One of the best parts of writing the Afternoon Edition each day is that I get to explore all kinds of interesting topics.

Two of those recent topics continue to be all over the news, and they are the issues of robots and automation , and artificial intelligence and the "Singularity."

These topics do materially affect markets, although their effect may not be as acute as, say, a monthly employment report.And speaking of which, we got a new monthly employment report this morning, as February saw 235,000 new non-farm payroll jobs created.That’s good economic news; however, I wonder how many […]

The Automation Upheaval Won’t Be Limited to Blue-Collar Jobs

The Age of Automation

Much has been said about how automation will affect employment and the economy. In almost every conversation, the looming threat of job displacement is focused on a very specific sector: the blue-collar job market.

One frequently cited study published back in 2013 by Oxford University and the Oxford Martin School says that 47 percent of jobs in the US will be automated in the next 20 years. In Canada, a study conducted by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship says that 40 percent of jobs in the country will be taken over by machines in […]

We’ll only run out of jobs if the world runs out of problems to solve

We’ll only run out of jobs if the world runs out of problems to solve

Some have argued that automation will make an increasing number of our jobs obsolete without replacing them, leading to a “ jobless world ” where unemployment is huge and persistent. While possible, I think this is not a likely future—and I’m not the only one . Fundamentally, work is not a fixed pie which machines are eating a bigger and bigger piece of while humans have less and less. Instead, work is generated by businesses and entrepreneurs who identify economic opportunities based on problems that need to be fixed.

One thing is clear: Our workforce is going through unprecedented change. […]

Robots aren’t killing the American Dream. Neither is trade. This is the problem.

Robots aren’t killing the American Dream. Neither is trade. This is the problem.

Robots named Thunderbird and Cyclops lower a Tesla vehicle onto the assembly line at Tesla Motors factory in Fremont, Calif., in 2016. (Joseph White/Reuters) “ No, robots aren’t killing the American Dream ,” argued the New York Times editorial board in February. As evidence, the Times emphasized that labor productivity and capital investment have decelerated in the new century. In theory, that wouldn’t be happening if automation were the main reason that the middle class has been shedding jobs.

Unfortunately, that argument leads many people to conclude that globalization and liberalized international trade must be what’s hurting U.S. manufacturing. That’s […]

Automation is coming for your job!!

Automation is coming for your job!!

We’ve gone through speedy, and at times shocking, technological progress over the past twenty or thirty years.

I’m 30 and remember watching VHS tapes. The tapes were expensive, wore out, were difficult to store, degraded, and weren’t mobile. We can now get much better video quality, on demand, with no storage need, no worries about wear or degradation, virtually any time and anywhere on any modern mobile device. That’s just an example of what twenty years ago would have seemed impossible is now routine.

We’ve already been through a major wave of job loss in manufacturing and other blue collar industries. […]

Michael Hicks: We need better planning for automation

Michael Hicks: We need better planning for automation

There is remarkable angst growing over the role of machines in the production of goods and services. While we are right to be concerned over the labor market effects of automation, most folks worry about the wrong things. That can lead to some stunningly wasteful, if not outright hurtful, public policies. Here’s why.

All technological change, from the shovel to the microcomputer, is designed to save labor. At the same time — and only in market-based economies — new work continues to materialize and business endeavors to hire more workers. For all of recorded history, automation and productivity improvement creates […]

Technology will destroy millions of American jobs

Technology will destroy millions of American jobs

Bill Pugliano/Getty A significant part of Trump’s campaign centered on the angst of the white middle class and the ongoing loss of jobs in the Rust Belt. And that focus gave him his margin of victory.

Trump promised to bring those jobs back, a sentiment that resonated powerfully with the electorate. The problem is— as we’ve talked about previously— that at least 80–90% of manufacturing jobs were lost not to companies moving factories to China or Mexico but to increased automation.

Those Jobs Are Never “Coming Back” They are gone. And that trend is going to continue and accelerate.I […]

The optimist’s guide to the robot apocalypse

The optimist’s guide to the robot apocalypse

Machines, you may have heard, are coming for all the jobs.

Robots flip burgers and work warehouses . Artificial intelligence handles insurance claims and basic bookkeeping , manages investment portfolios , does legal research , and performs basic HR tasks . Human labor doesn’t stand a chance against them—after the “ automation apocalypse ,” only those with spectacular abilities and the owners of the robots will thrive.

Or at least, that’s one plausible and completely valid theory. But before you start campaigning for a universal basic income and set up a bunker , you might want to also familiarize yourself with […]

Robots are coming, but not for your job, says EU digital chief

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Humans are not going to be usurped in the workplace by robots, according to the European Commission’s digital chief Andrus Ansip, who says, “Despite all the studies, I do not think anybody really knows the degree to which jobs are affected by digital change. I do not believe in the mass unemployment scenario.”

Robots are encroaching on routine work in factories and offices in Europe at a slightly faster rate than other parts of the world.Half of the countries in the top ten league table of most industrial robots per 10,000 employees belong to the EU and their presence is […]

Is technology replacing jobs?

My sixth-grade girlfriend was the best. Her name was Anne. I would never meet anyone else as great as she was. I was already planning to get married to her.

Well, do you know how that ended? I never saw her in high school, or ever again actually. What we believe in when we are young is never what we experience as we age. It’s funny how that happens. Oh my, how things change.

So, automation is 50 years old. Is it mature? Absolutely. And now we have the benefit of hindsight of those 50 years. To me—and don’t forget my […]