Tag: consumer

The real reasons behind the fall in America’s manufacturing jobs

The real reasons behind the fall in America's manufacturing jobs

© Getty Images This morning’s employment report shows a healthy increase of 235,000 total (nonfarm) jobs last month, pretty much across the board, in all major categories except for retail services. The manufacturing sector alone gained 28,000 jobs — a stronger showing than we’ve seen in a long time.

But we shouldn’t break out the champagne over one month’s worth of manufacturing jobs. Compared with roughly a year ago, manufacturing has been essentially flat, up just 7,000 jobs. Looking further back it becomes obvious that manufacturing just has not followed the typical storyline of an industry merely living through and […]

Automation is coming for your job!!

Automation is coming for your job!!

We’ve gone through speedy, and at times shocking, technological progress over the past twenty or thirty years.

I’m 30 and remember watching VHS tapes. The tapes were expensive, wore out, were difficult to store, degraded, and weren’t mobile. We can now get much better video quality, on demand, with no storage need, no worries about wear or degradation, virtually any time and anywhere on any modern mobile device. That’s just an example of what twenty years ago would have seemed impossible is now routine.

We’ve already been through a major wave of job loss in manufacturing and other blue collar industries. […]

Jobs require an overhaul in education system

Jobs require an overhaul in education system

Rise in AI likely to hurt Centre’s ambition to create millions of jobs. Amidst concern about robots replacing manual labour in the middle skill jobs, a report released by industry body Assocham along with global audit firm PwC has called for an overhaul of the education system to meet the emerging industry demand. (Representational image) MUMBAI: Amidst concern about robots replacing manual labour in the middle skill jobs, a report released by industry body Assocham along with global audit firm PwC has called for an overhaul of the education system to meet the emerging industry demand. The report also […]

Personal Finance: Talk to the machine

Personal Finance: Talk to the machine

Bank of America received attention last month for announcing the rollout of fully automated bank branches. Three pilot locations will open this year, each about one-quarter the size of a traditional branch but with no one home. Think of a row of ATMs plus a couple of cubicles at which you can chat with a person via webcam.

This is the next logical progression in an inexorable trend: removing human interaction wherever possible. And it’s picking up speed. The most critical challenge for policymakers may not be Obamacare or tax reform, but how to retrain a workforce that is rapidly […]

How can India create Employment in the digital age?

How can India create Employment in the digital age?

The global window for export- and manufacturing- led development is closing Marc Saxer Delhi

Ever since the Second Industrial Revolution started to peter out in the 1960s, global capitalism has faced a crisis of demand. Ironically, the strategies put in place to restore profitability largely aimed at the supply side: 1) the Rationalisation of production through technological automation aimed at increasing efficiency; more recently the digital revolution as the latest attempt to tackle the consumption crisis by rationalising the consumptive and distributive apparatus. 2) the Globalisation of production by offshoring, profiting from cheap labour cost in developing economies; 3) […]

Labour augmenting or job destroying?

Labour augmenting or job destroying?

Credit: Pixabay. This post highlights some of the possible economic implications of the so-called “ Fourth Industrial Revolution ” — whereby the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) threatens to transform entire industries and sectors.

Some economists have argued that, like past technical change, this will not create large-scale unemployment, as labour gets reallocated.

However, many technologists are less optimistic about the employment implications of AI. In this blog post we argue that the potential for simultaneous and rapid disruption, coupled with the breadth of human functions that AI might replicate, may have profound implications for labour markets.We conclude […]

How Automation Creates Incredible Potential for Human Advancement

How Automation Creates Incredible Potential for Human Advancement

Human built robotics are becoming mainstream; the advent of self driving cars is a perfect example of this. President Trump has tasked his Secretary of Transportation with evaluating the regulations for self driving cars that were set out under President Obama. Unlike many of Trump’s policies, this action seems genuine. This may be because no one on planet earth knows what to do about the rise of automation.

The difference that automation is beginning to make in our lives is significant, and most people don’t know what is happening behind the scenes. In the case of Trump, the SOT Elaine […]

Brand human: why efficient automation will not always be best for business

Brand human: why efficient automation will not always be best for business

As study after study predicts huge swaths of jobs will be wiped out by automation in the coming decades , there’s one factor that might just throw a spanner in the works of the robot workforce takeover: the marketing power of brand human.

Just as Fair Trade and organic branding initiatives have convinced consumers to pay a higher price for products and services that might not be produced in the most coldly efficient way possible, businesses are realising the potential to carve out a niche in the face of growing disenchantment with the rise of the machines.

Marketers have identified a […]

The Economist explainsHow to make robots pay their fair share

The Economist explainsHow to make robots pay their fair share

THE future looks increasingly perilous for the human worker. New robots are no longer flummoxed by staircases and doorknobs; clever software is capable of driving cars and carrying on (rudimentary) conversations. While a workless world remains a distant possibility, a period of automation-driven disruption seems to loom ahead. Many futurists reckon that as machines replace people, governments will need to find ways to redistribute income from the machines (and the people who own them) to displaced workers, to ensure that the benefits of automation-driven growth are shared widely. In a recent interview Bill Gates proposed one method for doing […]

Automation is Taking Over One of the Most Popular Professions

Automation is Taking Over One of the Most Popular Professions

Truck driving is the most popular job for people in most US states and the advent of the self-driving truck is going to completely disrupt that profession.

Universal Basic Income is one way to address the upcoming worker displacement that’s coming from automation.

Late last year, I took a road trip with my partner from our home in New Orleans, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida and as we drove by town after town, we got to talking about the potential effects self-driving vehicle technology would have not only on truckers themselves, but on all the local economies dependent on trucker […]