Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Robot arms replace factory hands

Robot arms replace factory hands

95 per cent of job losses are due to automation and computer technology. PHOTO: AFP PARIS: Donald Trump has been crowing as companies including Ford renounce plans to move factories to Mexico. But the main beneficiaries of this shift back to the US aren’t saying much by way of celebration — industrial robots don’t tend to speak.

While globalisation’s detractors blame countries such as China and Mexico for stealing the factory jobs of the West, experts point to less obvious culprits which are harder to scapegoat and to overcome in an interconnected economy with complex supply chains.

Since US manufacturing employment […]

Robots want half of your jobs

Robots want half of your jobs

Here’s a fun way to spend a long weekend: Contemplating whether you’ll be replaced by a robot.

Employers could feasibly swap out machines, using existing technology, for humans in 50 percent of today’s jobs, says a new McKinsey report.

That’s not just low-paying work but plenty of white collar employment as well, and that works out to $16 trillion in wages worldwide, and $2.7 trillion in the U.S.The are plenty of caveats to that projection — the biggest one is that the automation won’t happen until 2055, or maybe 2035, or maybe 2075?But it’s still the kind of big, headline grabbing […]

McKinsey report: Robots will take jobs, but not as fast as some fear

McKinsey report: Robots will take jobs, but not as fast as some fear

Humanoid robots work side by side with employees in the assembly line at a factory of Glory Ltd., a manufacturer of automatic change dispensers, in Kazo, north of Tokyo, Japan, July 1, 2015. — Reuters pic NEW YORK, Jan 14 — The robots are coming, but the march of automation will displace jobs more gradually than some alarming forecasts suggest.

A measured pace is likely because what is technically possible is only one factor in determining how quickly new technology is adopted, according to a new study by the McKinsey Global Institute. Other crucial ingredients include economics, labour markets, regulations […]

Letter: Look ahead, not back

Re Canada’s Donald Trump, letter to the editor, Jan. 11

I’m afraid that I have to break Rick Lockman’s optimistic bubble about bringing traditional middle-class jobs back to Canada.

While the factories and places of employment will probably return, the manner in which work is done is being irrevocably changed by robotics and automation. Very soon, all routine work will be done by robots or automated systems. This is why the World Economic Forum predicted in 2016 that by 2020 we will be seeing worldwide disruptions in employment, and these will continue for the foreseeable future. Foxconn plans to replace significant […]

America’s growth challenge, in 2 charts

The following two charts, from that great McKinsey Global Institute study I mentioned earlier, do a good job of illustrating the productivity challenge facing advanced economies, including the United States. If you want to grow as fast in the future as in the past, productivity growth is key to offset a demographic headwind: McKinsey further breaks down the growth challenge, and highlights how automation can help: GDP growth was exceptionally brisk over the past half century, driven by the twin engines of employment growth and rising productivity. However, declining birthrates and the trend toward aging in many advanced and […]

Rise of robots spurs call for ‘kill switches’

Rise of robots spurs call for 'kill switches'

A 4m-tall robot being tested in a Hankook Mirae Technology lab in South Korea last month. Socialist MEP Mady Delvaux warns that Europe is standing by passively as robots take an increasingly powerful role.PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE European MPs pass resolution calling for laws to deal with artificial intelligence

BRUSSELS • The unstoppable rise of robots in our everyday lives requires urgent EU rules such as "kill switches", European Parliament members have warned as they passed a resolution urging Brussels into action on automaton ethics.

Ms Mady Delvaux, a Socialist Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Luxembourg, led the campaign […]

UC Berkeley Study Predicts Positive Economic Benefit From California’s Minimum Wage Increases

UC Berkeley Study Predicts Positive Economic Benefit From California’s Minimum Wage Increases

Supporters of a $15-per-hour minimum wage rally outside the state Capitol in Sacramento on March 31, 2016. ( Katie Orr/KQED ) Are minimum wage increases good for the economy on the whole or bad?

Getting an accurate, nuanced answer to that question is no easy task. There are all sorts of factors. Higher wages could incentivize businesses to automate jobs and lay off workers. They could also prompt companies to raise prices, which could turn off customers.

On the other side of the equation, higher wages mean more money in the pockets of low-income workers, who could then spend more. A […]

Meeting the rise of the robots: Mass unemployment or mass redeployment?

The robots are rising, but probably not as fast as you think. That is one of the take-aways from a lengthy new McKinsey Global Institute report, “Harnessing automation for a future that works.”

This is the headline finding: “While less than 5% of all occupations can be automated entirely using demonstrated technologies, about 60% of all occupations have at least 30% of constituent activities that could be automated. More occupations will change than will be automated away.”

Or as Michael Chui, one of the report’s authors, told the Wall Street Journal : “Given that we will need the machines working […]

Robots Will Devour Jobs More Slowly Than You Think

Robots Will Devour Jobs More Slowly Than You Think

We know that automation is affecting the labor market , but forecasts differ on how swift and dramatic the future impact will be. A new report now suggests things may happen more slowly than some have predicted.

Last month, it was reported that Foxconn plans to replace almost every human worker in some of its manufacturing plants with a robot . Perhaps more worrying for office workers was the news that a Japanese insurance firm was sacking over 30 staff because artificial intelligence could calculate payouts just as well as humans. No wonder that two-thirds of Americans believe that robots […]

Will you be replaced by a robot? A look at what jobs are going to the bots

Will you be replaced by a robot? A look at what jobs are going to the bots

WATCH ABOVE: European politicians debate whether to give robots rights With automation and artificial intelligence seeping into our everyday lives, the threat of a robot revolution taking over our jobs (and, according to sci-fi movies, the world) seems more realistic.

While automation will inevitably become more common in the workplace, a new report estimates only about five per cent of jobs are in jeopardy of a total takeover.

READ MORE: Do humans trust robots too much? Overall, automation will benefit businesses and economies as a whole, write the authors of the report from the McKinsey Global Institute , the business […]