Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Automation and its effects on employment

In the developed world manufacturing production has at worst held steady while jobs in those industries have fallen.

Manufacturing has held steady at about a quarter of US GDP for the last 10 years but total employment in manufacturing has fallen from about 10 percent of the population to about 7 percent.

Now, there is a lot going on here I would agree Millers. Its certainly not just automation. American (and other developed world nations) no longer make socks for example because even with yoooooge tariff walls we just arent going to make socks cheaper than China […]

Robots in the workplace? Yes, but not as we know them

Robots in the workplace? Yes, but not as we know them

Development will mean moving people on to more advanced jobs and developing skills

The old view of robot servants is being challenged by software-based processes which carry out boring and repetitive tasks within a company’s IT system. Photograph: Getty Images In a certain science fiction-influenced view of the future, robots will be our ever-willing servants, taking on the work that we no longer want to do, making our home and work lives easier. It seems like a long way off. But is it?

It all depends on your definition of robot. If you want an I, Robot -style companion […]

Jobs, Robots, and ‘Humans Need Not Apply’

Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Jerry Kaplan

Published in August of 2015.

What books are on your Robots bookshelf ?What have you been reading that has helped you make sense of whether automation will degrade or improve our future?How have you been trying to make sense of how higher education should adapt and change to stay relevant in an age of driverless cars, lawyer-less legal services, and professor-less teaching?If you are developing such a library (and I bet that you might be), then I would recommend adding Humans Need […]

A hire power

A hire power

JOSEPH SCHUMPETER gave the name “creative destruction” to the process by which new and innovative firms displace stodgy ones, thereby driving long-run economic growth. The Schumpeterian sort of economic reinvention is out of fashion at the moment. Unhappy workers are casting their lot with populist politicians, who are in turn looking to rein in the disruption caused by everyone from tech unicorns in Silicon Valley to sellers of cut-price steel in China. Economists understandably worry that this backlash will lead to sweeping new regulations, taxes and protections for firms and workers. But red tape and tax are not the […]

Anna Turley: In an Uber economy, an active state can ensure the rewards reach the many and not the few

Anna Turley: In an Uber economy, an active state can ensure the rewards reach the many and not the few

Technological change is already beginning to transform our world, changing the way we live and work. The challenge for progressives is to find ways of managing the disruption so that all parts of our society can benefit. As my colleague Tom Watson MP has argued, the question is how we make this transformative process our friend and not our foe.

The “job for life” is now rare, replaced with less secure work and more self-employment. The next generation of automation could soon see more jobs replaced by robots. For policymakers this means grasping for new means to manage the resulting […]

Only Humans Need Apply: Job Prospects Following Advances in AI

This post was authored primarily by CDT Summer 2016 intern Elaine Chou . “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” Last week, in response to a Request for Information from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, CDT submitted a report on “Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence” (“AI”). Our comments focused on how the government can reduce inequality in the workforce and promote societal progress as AI advances. CDT believes in the power of AI, and suggests policy improvements […]

Scoble: VR will create a ton of jobs, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride

Scoble: VR will create a ton of jobs, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride

Robert Scoble is no longer worried about job creation. And that’s good, right? I mean… one less thing.

‘Scobleizer,’ the Entrepreneur in Residence at Upload VR and noted futurist, took some today time to tell me all about it. Like it or not, automation is coming here

While most of us are already aware that automation is coming, I think those outside the tech community are blissfully unaware at how close they are to getting the axe in favor of cool, efficient steel — or binary code.According to Oxford researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, 47 percent of […]

Universal basic income paid by a ‘robot tax’ is a bad idea

Universal basic income paid by a ‘robot tax’ is a bad idea

Thilo Brodtmann considers that the Parliament’s report on robots should have been a selection of "sensible suggestions" instead of a list of regulatory measures. Although the digitalisation of industry is a top priority among EU decision makers, Europe should not be concerned about job losses caused by growing automation. Instead, member states should teach the new generations the skills required for a digital future, believes the VDMA chief, Thilo Brodtman.

Thilo Brodtmann is the executive director of VDMA, the German mechanical engineering association representing more than 3,200 mainly small and medium -sized companies.

Brodtmann spoke to EurActiv.com’s Jorge Valero […]

Will Automation Make Employees Obsolete?

The subject of automation and robotics tends to strike fear in the hearts of job seekers and professionals in many career disciplines. Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, businesses have been introducing faster, more efficient and cost-effective equipment into their daily business operations.

Today, even the auto industry is looking to design a remote controlled vehicle that operates without the need for a driver at a steering wheel. Drones, of course, are now one of the most popular methods of delivery for many businesses.

While much of this equipment may sound like space age concepts, they have the tendencies to […]

Stuart Hall, Tyzack works out the future.

Stuart Hall, Tyzack works out the future.

The pace of technological change, shifting demographic patterns and economic globalisation are radically re-shaping the future of employment globally. This is something we have been witnessing since 2000, with the acceleration of a technological revolution, a radical transformation more comprehensive and more encompassing than anything we have seen before.

We are already experiencing the impact in staff reductions as a result of technology such as supermarket self-checkouts, ATM machines and robotics in the manufacturing sector, and whilst few doubt that the changes we’re experiencing hold great promise, the patterns of employment, production and consumption resulting from them are certainly creating […]