Tag: academic

Workplace technology

The author says when automated teller machines (ATMs) were introduced, some thought bank tellers would be out of a job. It is important that we continue learning, both formal and non-formal, to upgrade our skills. Picture: SUPPLIED

LAST week I saw a young adult who had asked me to write a job reference walking by a prominent retail outlet in the Capital City. He looked depressed and I assumed he would recount how a loved one had passed away.

He had a different story to tell. In his new workplace, staff were not allowed to use their smartphones during work hours. […]

The re-manufacturing of American manufacturing

The re-manufacturing of American manufacturing

I’ve just ended a trip from a couple locations that were featured in two documentary films about jobs that are disappearing from America and about the demise of manufacturing here in the United States. “American Jobs” was produced by Greg Spotts in 2005 and “American Made Movie” was produced by Vincent Vittorio and Nathaniel McGill in 2013. With all the political rhetoric being thrown around haphazardly by politicians in Washington about the need to “make America great again!” and the importance of bringing jobs back to the states and keeping them here, especially manufacturing jobs, I decided to pay […]

Population Aging 2017

Population Aging 2017

As political controversy flares in the US and our European friends prepare to “vacation” for the month of August, two parallel events are cutting through the summer heat and distractions as clear reminders of the global megatrend of population aging.

The first is the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), held in London next week, which will bring together Alzheimer’s experts, innovators, advocates and caregivers to develop strategies to combat the disease. https://www.alz.org/aaic/ Second, immediately following AAIC, the once-every-four-year International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) conference https://www.iagg2017.org/ will convene about 6,000 from medicine, healthcare, economics, and retirement professions, including […]

Automation Impacting Earnings Distribution

Automation Impacting Earnings Distribution

If your main worry over automation is losing your job, history suggests you’ll probably be just fine. After all, even a century of unprecedented technological advancement in transportation, production and communication hasn’t caused labor’s share of national income to significantly budge.

Economists David Autor and Anna Salomons reckon that’s because the primary driver of employment has actually been population growth, despite all the emphasis placed in academic circles on how machines augment human labor as well as why they will ultimately replace us anyway, Bloomberg reported.

The bigger concern, they say, is how technological advances will affect earnings distribution. Essentially, the […]

Robots are coming: What jobs will still be around in 20 years?

Robots are coming: What jobs will still be around in 20 years?

A study by Oxford University examined 702 common occupations and found that some jobs – telemarketers, tax preparers and sports referees – are at more risk than others including recreational psychologists, dentists and physicians.

Repesentative photo showing industrial robots at work. The robots are coming, the robots are coming!

Regular reports warn us that an automation apocalypse is nigh. In January, a McKinsey & Company study found that about 30% of tasks in 60% of occupations could be computerised and last year, the Bank of England’s chief economist said that 80m US and 15m UK jobs might be taken over […]

Rising Inequality May Be the Real Risk of Automation

Rising Inequality May Be the Real Risk of Automation

If your main worry over automation is losing your job, history suggests you’ll probably be just fine.

After all, even a century of unprecedented technological advancement in transportation, production and communication hasn’t caused labor’s share of national income to significantly budge. Economists David Autor and Anna Salomons reckon that’s because the primary driver of employment has actually been population growth, despite all the emphasis placed in academic circles on how machines augment human labor as well as why they will ultimately replace us anyway.

The bigger concern, they say, is how technological advances will affect earnings distribution.Essentially, the argument that the […]

What jobs will still be around in 20 years? Read this to prepare your future

What jobs will still be around in 20 years? Read this to prepare your future

The robots are coming, the robots are coming!

Regular reports warn us that an automation apocalypse is nigh. In January, a McKinsey & Company study found that about 30% of tasks in 60% of occupations could be computerized and last year, the Bank of England’s chief economist said that 80m US and 15m UK jobs might be taken over by robots .

Of course, not all jobs are created equally. In 2013, a highly cited study by Oxford University academics called The Future of Employment examined 702 common occupations and found that some jobs – telemarketers, tax preparers and sports referees […]

Thai students woefully under-prepared for next industrial revolution

Thai students woefully under-prepared for next industrial revolution

OPINION

Thai students woefully under-prepared for next industrial revolution

Special to The Nation Last month, schools across Thailand began a new academic year. The new school year brings with it new friends, new teachers and new experiences, but one aspect of school life will remain unchanged: the outdated and ineffective system of teaching, learning and assessment, so appalling it now threatens to abandon children in a previous century, implying a “Thailand 0.4” instead of the government’s dream of a national reboot. The failings of the education system have been well documented, with the country consistently ranking poorly […]

The Inevitability of Ubiquitous Automation

The Inevitability of Ubiquitous Automation

http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf The linked paper is brought to you by researchers from Oxford University. They examine emerging labor market trends resulting from automation and why the oncoming round of automation will be different from the last.

Synopsis:

Historic labor market trends (1980-2005) point towards a hollowing out of middle income routine based careers in favor of high-income cognitive and low-income manual occupations. Net changes in US employment were U-shaped in skill level, meaning lowest and highest job-skill quartiles expanded sharply with relative employment declines in the middle of the distribution.These changes resulted from automation being confined to routine manufacturing tasks. […]

Career planning will be critical in the age of automation

Career planning will be critical in the age of automation

Press Release: Massey University

Most New Zealanders are still confident their jobs will be safe from advances in technology over the next decade, according to the latest findings of an ongoing research project into attitudes around the future of work.

Dr David Brougham from the Massey Business School and Professor Jarrod Haar from AUT surveyed 500 New Zealand employees earlier this year and found that 80 per cent of participants did not think their job could be automated.The results did not deviate significantly from data collected in 2015 and 2016, despite extensive media coverage of the issue over that time.Dr […]