Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Automation’s Positive Effect: 90% Automation In Chinese Factory Results In 250% More Output, 80% Reduction In Defects

Automation’s Positive Effect: 90% Automation In Chinese Factory Results In 250% More Output, 80% Reduction In Defects

One of the first lessons which a business learns via hard way is that it exists for one sole purpose: making profits. A hardcore business is different from a social service, and providing employment is not it’s main objective of creation, but a means to achieve its business goals.

If automation leads to more productivity, reduction in errors, then is there any real reason for opposing it, even if it means a reduction in employment? A recent case study from a Chinese factory forces us to ask this question, in a hard way. Automation’s Positive Side-Effect in A Chinese Factory

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Robots taking over jobs: Underwriters most at risk

Robots taking over jobs: Underwriters most at risk

Japanese insurer replacing its staff with artificial intelligence If the news of a has made you think of job security, then these new research findings might also shake you up.

Oxford University director Carl Frey, the author of a 2013 study on the impact of automation on future employment, has followed up his work by analysing which middle-class jobs are most likely to be taken over by robots.

Frey looked at office jobs that pay more than £40,000 and made a list of occupations that are most likely to disappear due to the threat of automation.“While low-skilled jobs are most exposed […]

Opinion: Canada’s economy can thrive in automated future

Opinion: Canada's economy can thrive in automated future

World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab: The consequences of job automation were a reoccurring theme. In 2017, the United States government will attempt to revive industrial jobs from the 20th century — and we in Canada might be tempted to follow suit.

Employment in manufacturing and resource extraction continues to decline even though a majority of the companies in the Toronto Stock Exchange Composite Index still belong to those sectors.

Yes, it’s frustrating that these companies represent so much of Canada’s economic value yet employ fewer and fewer people. But no, they cannot revive jobs that technology is […]

Rise of the robots

Rise of the robots

From drones delivering your post to robotic chefs, automation looks set to eliminate a chunk of the workforce but could also free us from dangerous jobs. Ryan Fletcher asks what life side by side with machines will look like As the current masters of the universe mingled at the World Economic Forum in Davos at the start of the year, it became clear that the Silicon Valley executives in attendance were worrying about the havoc their hi-tech creations could wreak. But it wasn’t the prospect that their artificial intelligence tech would create a robot class capable of usurping them. […]

Futures Shaped by Automation and Catastrophe: Peter Frase on Capitalism’s Endgame

Futures Shaped by Automation and Catastrophe: Peter Frase on Capitalism's Endgame

What will replace capitalism as we currently know it? (Photo: Wolf-Ulf Wulfrolf / Flickr) Is capitalism’s collapse inevitable? If so, what kind of post-capitalist society do we face? In Four Futures: Life After Capitalism , Peter Frase draws on social science, speculative fiction and social theory to create an engaging and thought-provoking portrait of four possible scenarios, some more dystopian than others. Order your copy of this book today from Truthout by clicking here!

As we automate more jobs and continue on a road to scarcity of resources, whither capitalism? The following is the Truthout interview with Peter Frase, […]

As economy becomes more automated, is your job safe?

As economy becomes more automated, is your job safe?

Podcast

A study by Oxford professors Michael Osborne and Carl Benedikt Frey estimates that 47 percent of jobs in the U.S. are at risk of being automated in the next 20 years. In his farewell speech, former President Obama spoke of the relentless pace of automation that is making good middle class jobs obsolete. Tom Martin talks about the implications of automation with Dr. Chris Bollinger, professor of economics and director of the Center of Business and Economic Research in the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics.

Click here to hear the audio version of the interview: […]

Hey, robot, leave my job alone

Hey, robot, leave my job alone

Job insecurity and technology have created a ‘crisis of meaning’ in today’s workplace

Academics believe there will be massive job losses as automation takes over more and more human roles. Photograph: Getty Images Bankers don’t attract much sympathy these days, but imagine belonging to an industry that has been blamed for eight years of austerity and for triggering political turmoil on a worldwide scale.

Imagine further you’re an ordinary bank teller who has seen your traditional responsibilities taken over by machines: ATMs, online portals and phone apps. Now imagine that your sector will lose another 30 per cent of […]

Automation

Finally, Michigan can sleep easy. The factories are coming back. Ford’s CEO, Mark Fields, has cancelled a $1.6 billion investment in Mexico and is, instead, injecting $700 million into existing operations in the Great Lake State. This “Great Again” outcome is expected to create 700 jobs over the next four years.

Ford says that “changing business conditions” impacted their decision to cancel the Mexico operation, and they’re right. Business conditions are changing. For starters, 3D printers and robots are faster and more precise than even foreign laborers. Not to mention, robots don’t need to feed a family or pay the […]

25% of CEOs’ Time Is Spent on Tasks Machines Could Do

25% of CEOs’ Time Is Spent on Tasks Machines Could Do

Soon after taking office, the new president created a national commission to examine the impact of automation. No family should pay an unjust price for progress, he announced, yet automation should not be viewed as an enemy. “If we understand it, if we plan for it, if we apply it well, automation will not be a job destroyer or a family displaced. Instead, it can remove dullness from the work of man and provide him with more than man has ever had before.”

The U.S. president who spoke those words was Lyndon B. Johnson , and the year was 1964.

A […]

The future of manufacturing

The future of manufacturing

There’s growing optimism about a revival, but it won’t be what you think

The other day I had a conversation with a Manchester stockbroker who was bullish on the future of U.S. manufacturing. Parenthetically, this claim and others he made reminded me of two things about stockbrokers. One is by design – they have an eye to the future. The second is that they are capable of disrupting conventional wisdom with their insights.

So what are we to believe about the current state and future of manufacturing careers in the U.S.? Recent history and economic news has shown a declining […]