Tag: consumer

You Decide: What’s the New Outlook for Jobs?

You Decide: What's the New Outlook for Jobs?

A few years ago, a couple of economists made a big splash by predicting almost half of occupations in the country had a big chance of being replaced by automation and technology in coming decades.

Unemployment rates would soar to double digits and stay there. The economists’ forecast revived fears of “technological unemployment” posing a bigger threat to jobs than any future recession.

How out-of-touch those forecasts now look today. Companies are hungry for workers. Many are hiring unqualified people and then training them. Unemployment rates are reaching historic lows among many groups and in many regions.The job situation and facts […]

The role of financial services professionals in an automated world

The role of financial services professionals in an automated world

As many as 800 million jobs could be lost worldwide to automation, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute.

However, the technology will also create new jobs, existing ones will be reshaped, and workers will be provided with unprecedented opportunities.

Every sector will be impacted by this seismic shift – and financial services will be no exception.For instance, data capturing, bean counting and basic financial advice will soon be jobs of the past as machines and automated processes are introduced.In the modern working environment, the kind of skills that will see a new kind of professional class rise will […]

Study Says Trump Tariffs Create 20 New U.S. Jobs for Every One Lost

Study Says Trump Tariffs Create 20 New U.S. Jobs for Every One Lost

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Pin It Share Email Print Late-night news comic John Oliver recently gave a 20-minute talk about President Donald Trump’s use of tariffs. As always, he was very funny, but he made a few mistakes in his analysis of trade.The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) would like to help provide a better understanding of the issue. To start with, Oliver said that Americans will pay for the tariffs imposed by the president. That’s not actually true. In fact, it’s basic economics that every tax is paid partly by the producer and […]

AI to spur global economic growth- report

AI to spur global economic growth- report

Artificial intelligence (AI) could add $13 trillion to worldwide economic output by 2030, equivalent to about 1.2 per cent of additional GDP growth a year, according to a new report. The study by McKinsey Global Institute has predicted that about 70% of companies would implement some form of AI by the end of the next decade, with frontrunners set to reap a large financial benefit.

Early adopters of the technology could double their cashflow, with laggards suffering a 20 per cent decline.

Overall, AI could deliver $13 trillion in additional global economic activity by 2030, putting its contributions to growth on […]

Exclusive Q&A: Which Retail Jobs Are Safe From A Robot Takeover? Featured

Exclusive Q&A: Which Retail Jobs Are Safe From A Robot Takeover? Featured

Retail, hospitality and other service-oriented industries have been seen as relatively immune to the job-killing effects of robotics, automation and AI. But as these technologies grow more sophisticated, retail’s resistance is weakening. Futurist Martin Ford, author of Rise Of The Robots: Technology And The Threat Of A Jobless Future , notes that robots are already reducing (or eliminating) the number of humans needed to do many jobs, including:

• Warehouse work;
• Checking in-store inventory;
• Providing customer service; and • Staffing points of sale.In an exclusive interview with Retail TouchPoints , Ford identifies the advances in robotics and AI […]

Chaos with slight chance of Star Trek: Forecast murky for future of work

Chaos with slight chance of Star Trek: Forecast murky for future of work

Posted 5:50 a.m. today After a decade working dead-end jobs, Justin Smith is the junior network assistant administrator with the IT department of the Charleston County School District. Raleigh, N.C. — Laurence Kotlikoff was on the hunt for a new suit at a Boston-area Men’s Wearhouse when the clerk presented him with an interesting choice – particularly to a Boston University professor of economics who studies trends in the American workforce.

Why not have a suit made custom, rather than pay almost the same price for one off the rack?

To keep costs competitive, the normally labor-intensive process of creating patterns […]

NAFTA reform must carefully mitigate risk

United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer arrives at the Office of The United States Trade Representative, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, in Washington, ahead of the arrival of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. Canada, America’s longtime ally and No. 2 trading partner, was left out of a proposed deal Trump just reached with Mexico and is scrambling to keep its place in the regional free-trade bloc — and fend off the threat of U.S. taxes on its vehicles. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) On Aug. 27, 2018, Mexico and the United States reached a bilateral agreement regarding North Atlantic Free Trade […]

Automation, robots and the ‘end of work’ myth

Automation, robots and the ‘end of work’ myth

Can you imagine travelling to work in a robotic “Jonnycab” like the one predicted in the cult Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall? The image from 1990 is based on science fiction, but Mercedes Benz does have a semi-autonomous Driver Pilot system that it aims to install in the next five years and Uber is also waging on a self-driving future. Its partnership with Volvo has been seen as a boost to its ambitions to replace a fleet of self-employed drivers with autonomous vehicles.

Jonnycab might belong to futurology but if MIT academics Erik Brynjolfson and Andrew McAfee are right, we […]

How to Turn Workers into Innovators

How to Turn Workers into Innovators

In about a decade, one-third of current jobs could be automated. This doesn’t have to be a doomsday prediction if your plant can figure out how this paradigm shift will enhance your current workers.

Every week, there’s a new article about AI and automation becoming more efficient at manual tasks. By 2030, the McKinsey Institute estimates 39 to 73 million jobs — or one-third of the United States workforce — will be automated.

With no added context, this statistic sounds scary. Why would Americans invent themselves out of work? Unemployment and automation are not synonymous. Using these advancements, in tandem with […]

Coping with Technology: Challenges and Opportunities for ASEAN+3 Economies

Coping with Technology: Challenges and Opportunities for ASEAN+3 Economies

Technology Technological change and the relentless pace of automation offer significant opportunities for productivity growth and improved efficiency, but they also bring related risks of increased worker displacement and the challenge of upskilling labor.

While the rise in trade protectionism (discussed in the first part of this interview ) is an immediate reality the ASEAN+3 economies are confronted with, coping with technological advances and using them to drive productivity and growth is a medium- to long-term challenge for the region.

In this second part of the interview, AMRO’s chief economist, Hoe Ee Khor, touches upon this topic, as well as other […]