Tag: employment

What Is The Future Of Work In The Tradable Sector?

What Is The Future Of Work In The Tradable Sector?

Last week we held a screening of the film American Factory at the Harvard Business School (HBS), attended by film director Steven Bognar and representatives of the production company, Participant Media . The event was part of the school’s Documentary Series, and it was an opportunity to discuss views on the future of work, especially manufacturing work in the heartland of America. NPR says we should all watch it , and now that I have seen it several times, I couldn’t agree more.

The film documents the establishment of a new automotive window glass manufacturing facility by the Chinese company […]

By the numbers: how automation is affecting financial services jobs

By the numbers: how automation is affecting financial services jobs

Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, has regularly hit the headlines for his outspoken opinions on artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. In 2015, Mr Haldane claimed the jobs of up to 15 million people across the country could be replaced by robots in what he called a "third machine age".

Last year, he again emphasised the possibility of a "hollowing out" of the labour market if AI continued to advance and automate roles that require cognitive skills. However, the OECD has downplayed the potential of mass unemployment, arguing that previous studies underestimated how difficult it is to automate […]

The Fed’s Rally

The Fed's Rally

It wasn’t earnings growth.

Third quarter 2019 earnings for the companies of the S&P 500 were about 4% lower than they were a year ago. Of course, if we look at earnings per share, the decline was only around 2%.

Why the difference? It’s because a company’s share buyback activity lowers the number of shares out there. The smaller divisor makes for a bigger per-share earnings number…A lot of people will tell you that share buybacks are a terrible use of corporate cash — that the money should be reinvested in the company, that it should be used to pay employees […]

Infographic: The Global Decline Of Manufacturing

Infographic: The Global Decline Of Manufacturing

This chart shows the manufacturing value added as a percentage of GDP in selected countries.

Emerging and advanced economies alike are experiencing a decline of their manufacturing sectors, which are becoming less and less important for national incomes. In the 1980s, industrial production made up a quarter or more of national GDPs around the world, but that share has been in ongoing decline. This is according to data from the World Bank and the United Nations.

As the IMF notes, the loss of manufacturing jobs has been a source of anxiety across developed countries, as many fear the disappearance of […]

Job opportunities for Filipino youth

Job opportunities for Filipino youth

Bernardo M. Villegas A very insightful article that appeared in the Financial Times (August 27, 2019) by Noami Climer, co-chair of the Institute for the Future of Work in the U.K.) expounds on what it means to treat technology as an enabler rather than a threat. Starting with the observation that automation and AI are coming (indeed, they are already here) whether we like it or not, Ms. Climer says that it is up to us to determine whether the inevitable robots replace us at work or make our work happier and more rewarding. According to her: “At the […]

Automating A Job Reddit

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published this data story about the price of Russian oil across Europe. The uncertain situation is additionally stressful because it’s hard to separate facts about the future of automation’s impact from (science. AI and automation are certain to have a big impact on today’s employment landscape. These are the top 10 best and worst jobs for the future. The more a job can be broken down into a series of routine tasks, the more likely it can be replaced. Gunbot allows you to easily automate professional crypto trading strategies. , where she fed paper into […]

Another Day, Another Dollar, Part III

Another Day, Another Dollar, Part III

Image source: Amazon.com, Inc. December 2019 — Myth Buster

Parts I and II of this series looked at the pervasive nature of sweatshops inside the US and Europe, the world’s wealthiest regions. Part III uncovers a curious and unexpected entrant into the overwork/underpay culture. How about a new twist: a major high tech sweatshop addict? The Myth Buster has previously tackled the fight for delivery leadership between Walmart [ ( WMT )] and Amazon [ ( AMZN )], a battle that rages on. But, Amazon also ranks as a major purveyor of low wages.

Will the Real Amazon […]

Why Worry About Automation?

Why Worry About Automation?

UnitoneVector/Getty Images In previous periods of technological displacement of workers, economists like John Maynard Keynes and Wassily Leontief worried that too few new jobs would be created to prevent higher long-term unemployment. Today, facing an onrushing wave of digital automation, many share their misplaced unease.

LONDON – From the Luddite movement in the early nineteenth century to the writings of prominent economists like John Maynard Keynes and Wassily Leontief generations later, the prospect of automation has always raised serious concerns about jobs. Keynes and Leontief doubted there would be enough jobs left for workers to do. Today, facing an onrushing […]

Brexit voters more likely to live in areas at risk from rise of robots

Brexit voters more likely to live in areas at risk from rise of robots

Brexit supporters are more likely to live in areas most threatened by the economic impact of automation, according to a study of the impact of robots and artificial intelligence in the workplace.

A map of the parts of the UK likely to be hit by automation fits more closely with the map of leave voters than any other factor, said the Institute for the Future of Work (IFW) .

Up to 15 million workers are expected to have their employment prospects endangered by automation over the next decade, according to a series of reports that have tried to gauge the […]

Smart Factories and its Viability in India

Smart Factories and its Viability in India

A recent study from Capgemini Research Institute suggests that smart factories hold the potential of contributing at least $1.5 trillion to the global economy over the next four years through benefits such as productivity gains, improvements in quality and market share and customer services.

The research report, published by wire agency IANS further goes on to suggest that smart factories, leveraging digital technology, transformed 30 per cent of factories over the past two years. It said that 33 per cent of the organizations that planned to covert in 2017 have done so now. The report goes on to add […]