Tag: consumer

Machines, not Americans, could replace immigrant workers

Jim Bogart sees a growing trend in his patch of America: Farmers are turning more and more to machines because they can’t find enough workers to harvest fruits and vegetables.

It’s an issue costing California farmers millions of dollars and, they argue, it will eventually mean higher food prices at supermarkets.

“With the shortage of workers, we have to develop other means to help us grow, harvest and process our crops — robotics, mechanization, automation,” says Bogart, who is president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California.The farmers in Bogart’s area aren’t alone. Farmers across the state are investing more in […]

Can online shopping absorb traditional retail workers?

Can online shopping absorb traditional retail workers?

HARI SREENIVASAN: But first: As more and more shopping is done online, what will become of the 16 million Americans who work in the retail industry?

Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, takes a look. It’s part of our series Making Sense, which airs Thursdays on the NewsHour.

JENNIFER RICHTER , Former Regional Director, Macy’s: This is a great, great, great basic black top. PAUL SOLMAN: This summer, Jennifer Richter opened her own clothing boutique online. JENNIFER RICHTER: This is just the future of retail. The brick-and-mortar stores, they’re just going to keep trimming the fat and keep eliminating positions. PAUL […]

How Japan’s lifetime-employment system helps temper the automation dilemma

MORIYA, Japan — Thousands upon thousands of cans are filled with beer, capped and washed, wrapped into six-packs, and boxed at dizzying speeds — 1,500 a minute, to be exact — on humming conveyor belts that zip and wind in a sprawling factory near Tokyo.

Nary a soul is in sight in this picture-perfect image of Japanese automation.

The machines do all the heavy lifting at this plant run by Asahi Breweries, Japan’s top brewer. The human job is to make sure the machines do the work right and to check on the quality the sensors are monitoring.“Basically, nothing goes wrong. […]

If you don’t want to lose your job to a robot, don’t think like one

If you don’t want to lose your job to a robot, don’t think like one

Don’t be this guy The American job market holds few guarantees, and its future might hold even fewer. But in making critical career decisions, here’s a question you might ask yourself:

Am I a Roomba?

Chris Adami, a theoretical physicist and Michigan State University professor with a knack for breaking down artificial intelligence into simple terms, explains.A Roomba – the robotic floor sweeper – he said, is a familiar and easily understood example of how artificial intelligence works: “It senses the environment it’s in. It moves around, using an intelligent algorithm. Its reaction is appropriate given the sensory input it has.”This, […]

Minimum Wage Hikes and Automation Risks

Minimum Wage Hikes and Automation Risks

A couple years ago, I wrote , Other studies show that an increased minimum wage causes firms to incrementally move toward automation. Now, this too could be seen as a trade-off: automation and technological progress tend to make processes more efficient and therefore increase productivity (and eventually wages ), raising living standards for consumers (which include the poor). Nonetheless, the point is that while unemployment in the short-term may be insignificant, the long-term effects could be much bigger. For example, one study finds that minimum wage hikes lead to lower rates of job growth: about 0.05 percentage points a […]

Labor-short Japan more at home with automation than US

Labor-short Japan more at home with automation than US

MORIYA, Japan – Thousands upon thousands of cans are filled with beer, capped and washed, wrapped into six-packs, and boxed at dizzying speeds — 1,500 a minute, to be exact — on humming conveyor belts that zip and wind in a sprawling factory near Tokyo.

Nary a soul is in sight in this picture-perfect image of Japanese automation.The machines do all the heavy lifting at this plant run by Asahi Breweries, Japan’s top brewer. The human job is to make sure the machines do the work right, and to check on the quality the sensors are monitoring."Basically, nothing […]

Rhetoric over: Drive to ease NAFTA impact on workers begins

Rhetoric over: Drive to ease NAFTA impact on workers begins

WASHINGTON (AP) — Of all the trade deals he lambasted on the campaign trail as threats to American workers, President Donald Trump reserved particular scorn for one: The North American Free Trade Agreement.

The NAFTA agreement with Mexico and Canada was "the worst trade deal in history," candidate Trump declared. He accused NAFTA of having swollen America’s trade deficit with Mexico, pulled factories south of the border and killed jobs across the United States.

Trump promised to renegotiate the 23-year-old deal — or walk away from it. Now the time has come. Five days of talks aimed at overhauling NAFTA […]

Supercuts and the Future of (Too Many) Jobs

Supercuts and the Future of (Too Many) Jobs

Last week I got my hair cut at Supercuts. The wonderful old-fashioned barber shop that I always go to was closed for their annual vacation week, and I desperately needed a haircut for a big talk I was about to give. So Supercuts it was.

The haircut that I got a Supercuts was fine. The price was low, and the stylist was professional efficient.

The problem was the experience. There was a big line of people wanting to their hair cut, and not enough stylists to do the cutting. This was not due to a lack of barber chairs. There were […]

The Four Challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Four Challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The evolution of global industries to Industry 4.0 (Rev 4.0) is both exciting and scary. Industry 4.0 is the designated code name for a combination of traditional manufacturing practices and industrial processes with technological capabilities, from automation to AI. From factories becoming self-monitoring to delivery vehicles becoming self-driving. Whilst there are many benefits of Industry 4.0, there are several key challenges that lie ahead. Cybersecurity

Having everything attached to everything else in the Internet of things (IoT) is going to monumentally increase the vulnerabilities present in any given network. With more nodes, connections and burden of connectivity, systems are […]

Legal automation spells relief for lower-income Americans, hard times for lawyers

Legal automation spells relief for lower-income Americans, hard times for lawyers

Robots that help contest small fines could signal a move towards ‘fewer lawyers’ and ‘more justice.’

“Here’s the dirty little secret about automation: it’s easier to build a robot to replace a junior attorney than to replace a journeyman electrician.”

That’s Mark Mills, noting that it’s white-collar jobs that may be the next casualties of automation . “Instead of creative destruction coming to factories and farms, it’s sweeping through city centers and taking white-collar jobs.” White-collar workers used to think they were safe from automation while lesser breeds suffered unemployment. But now they’re on the front lines.That’s certainly the case […]