Tag: employment

In the future, will acquiring relevant skills matter more than earning a degree?

In the future, will acquiring relevant skills matter more than earning a degree?

There is much debate over whether the acquisition of skills will be more important than a degree in the future. Source: Unsplash There has been alot of talk about the need for graduates to acquire certain ‘soft skills’ if they are to survive in a future fueled by technologies such as automation and robotics.

These include critical thinking, collaborative thinking, innovation, relationship-building, communication, and more.

This has prompted discussions over whether college degrees will even be relevant for the next generation. An article by BigThink speculated that the traditional university setting will eventually become extinct.“With antiquated systems still in place, a […]

‘The Technology Trap’ as Companion to ‘Robot-Proof’

'The Technology Trap' as Companion to 'Robot-Proof’

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation by Carl Benedikt Frey

Published in June of 2019.

What recently published nonfiction book should a higher ed person read, if they only have time to read one book in 2019?A book that is not about higher ed, but is essential for higher ed?This was a question one of my smartest – and crazy busiest – colleagues asked me a few weeks ago. I might have an answer. The Technology Trap is written by one of the authors of a 2013 study that found that 47 […]

Hone the skills of Japanese youth to shoulder burdens of the 21st century

Hone the skills of Japanese youth to shoulder burdens of the 21st century

Japan is a land of opportunities for young people if they have the right skills. | GETTY IMAGES UNITED, ARAB EMIRATES – As the United Nations marks World Youth Skills Day on Monday, we are reminded of just how vital it is that young people are equipped to help build the sustainable, inclusive and stable societies we want them to inherit. The 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years, who make up 16 percent of the global population, are the future of our world. However, young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than […]

Automation, aging and employment: winners and losers

Automation, aging and employment: winners and losers

The developed societies are witnessing a technological revolution that is advancing rapidly in a globalized world. The clearest manifestation is possibly the automation of productive processes. The development of machines / robots that perform tasks, mostly routine and codifiable, that we previously made humans, is undoubted opportunities but also no lesser challenges. It entails opportunities because the robots undoubtedly perform these tasks with greater precision and speed -and consequently increases productivity-, and in addition they prevent people from carrying out very heavy and / or unpleasant tasks in many cases. These increases in productivity are undoubtedly an opportunity that […]

Inside the hellish workday of an Amazon warehouse employee

Inside the hellish workday of an Amazon warehouse employee

Living

Enlarge Image The labor can be so grueling at Amazon that one worker in Kentucky said she needs four pain meds just to get through the workday. It took just three days of working full time at an Amazon “fulfillment center” outside of Louisville, Kentucky, for Emily Guendelsberger’s body to break down.

She’d been warned by her supervisors that it would be physically demanding. She’d be on her feet for 12-hour shifts, walking a total of 15 to 20 miles through a 25-acre warehouse — as long as seven New York blocks — looking for merchandise to fulfill […]

Is Jeff Bezos Proving the Fed’s De-linking of Unemployment and Inflation?

Is Jeff Bezos Proving the Fed’s De-linking of Unemployment and Inflation?

I’ve written a couple of times over the years about the threat to jobs by technological automation and several pieces of news this week feels make now feel like an appropriate juncture to pick up the thread again. For a primer on the relationship between interest rates, job automation and inflation, have a read of this piece where I discussed some of the considerations facing the Fed. Of importance will be the basic understanding of the traditional interpretation of the Phillips Curve. An economic idea which fairly effectively conceptualised the basic principle that the level of unemployment within an […]

Neo Cab Takes On Uber & Lyft’s Gig Economies Via Near Future Sci-Fi

Neo Cab Takes On Uber & Lyft's Gig Economies Via Near Future Sci-Fi

The gig economy is beginning to define America’s employment system. Uber and Lyft (and others) changed the way people work. There’s the positive – work when you want for as long as you want – and negatives – minimal pay and no benefits. Eventually, that could all be automated. That’s the future Chance Agency’s Neo Cab explores.

“A close friend of mine was a part of the initial Lyft beta (when Uber was still black cars and limos), and we interviewed dozens of drivers, delivery folks and other gig workers to gather ideas about the entire ‘app worker’ space. Driver […]

Artificial Intelligence will kill jobs—and create them

Artificial Intelligence will kill jobs—and create them

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the automation of tasks once done by humans has raised fears about machines putting humans out of work and creating mass poverty. Happily, history has repeatedly proven the doomsayers wrong. While automation has certainly led to declines in entire industries (and employment in those industries), the relationship between automation and overall employment growth has been strongly positive over time.

There are sound explanations for this positive relationship. One, automation increases labour productivity and therefore raises the income levels of workers. Resulting increases in income translate into increased demand for all types of goods and services, […]

Top Four Business Process Outsourcing Trends To Expect In 2019

Top Four Business Process Outsourcing Trends To Expect In 2019

Every business is looking to cut their operating costs, and for many, that means outsourcing their non-primary functions to other companies, or even other countries. However, with the rise of certain new technologies, the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry could be at risk of losing a large portion of its market share.

As it turns out, it’s not just retailers that need to work hard to stay competitive, and BPO companies may find that 2019 could be a painful year for them if they are not keeping up with the industry’s latest trends. As the founder of an outsourced provider […]

3 million women in the UK need to transition to new jobs by 2030

3 million women in the UK need to transition to new jobs by 2030

More than 3 million women working in the UK are forecast to need to transition to new jobs in the coming decade, as digital disruption ramps up amid Britain’s rapidly automating markets. With higher paid, white collar jobs largely still dominated by men, women remain disproportionately concentrated in more repetitive administrative roles, which are particularly in line for automation.

In spite of multiple calls from political, economic and societal experts to promote the inclusion of women in business, the future of many women in the workforce is uncertain. While businesses can benefit significantly from a more diverse workforce, progress […]