Tag: employment

Letter to the Editor: Universal basic income is inevitable as we head toward a fully automated society

Letter to the Editor: Universal basic income is inevitable as we head toward a fully automated society

The industrial revolution, which started with the invention of the first commercially successful steam engine in Britain in the 18th century, allowed Britain to literally conquer the world. All the other advancements were built on what was started in the 18th century.

Today, we are witnessing another technological shift or revolution in the sciences: the Digital Revolution, which started in the 1960s with the implementation and adoption of digital data and digital computers (as opposed to human computers, who would run calculations by hand) from transistors and integrated circuits.

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) and data mining techniques are being implemented in […]

Coolie

Coolie

That English word was used for Chinese men who migrated to America in the 19th and 20th centuries to work on construction projects, including railroads in the United States and, in the Philippines then still under the American occupation, Kennon Road in Baguio.

Coolie comes from two Chinese words: “ku” meaning difficult, and “li” meaning labor. Hard labor then, a term that
resonates with prison labor. The Chinese “ku” can also mean bitterness and sorrow.
Of all places, I thought of coolies during a trip to Binondo, the heart of our Chinatown, last weekend as we came close to a gridlock. […]

Investing in Girls’ STEM Education

Investing in Girls’ STEM Education

Afghan Girls Robotics Team prepares to compete in first international robot Olympics, July 2017.. New technologies are dramatically transforming work and the global economy every day. This new age of automation creates new opportunities for businesses and governments, but due to gender barriers as old as time, the next generation of girls is at risk of being left behind. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers hold tremendous promise for millions of women—but only if new policies tackle access and education problems first.

In our recent report , we explain why the United States should increase its investment in STEM […]

Don’t Tax Robots (Yet)

Don’t Tax Robots (Yet)

A robot at science and technology commission of the Chamber of Deputies during a demonstration of technological innovation at the Chilean Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, October 2, 2019. While most of the Democratic presidential candidates were busy trying to come up with the most extreme proposals possible on health care, guns, and climate change, New York mayor Bill de Blasio earned his ill-fated campaign a brief flurry of media attention by endorsing an idea once backed by Bill Gates: tax robots to mitigate the reduction in human employment that they are expected to cause.

This is a bad idea in […]

A global strike for a feminist future of work

A global strike for a feminist future of work

The IMF claims to be empowering women, but its programmes will only lead to more women doing precarious work. APWLD mobilisation against the IMF and World Bank, October 2018 Read more!

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Speculation around the future of work has dominated policy discussion among governments and international agencies, especially the UN and ILO, in recent years. The debate centers around how technology will disrupt the workforce, with focus on increased automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). This has resulted in various policy recommendations ranging from retraining and upskilling, redesigning education systems, to flexibilisation of jobs.The World Bank […]

Robots to Replace 200,000 Banking Jobs: Report

Robots to Replace 200,000 Banking Jobs: Report

The next decade will see the greatest transfer from labor to capital the banking industry has ever seen.

That’s the conclusion of a report from analysts at Wells Fargo, which estimates that American banks will cut more than 200,000 jobs over the next 10 years, replacing workers with AI-based services and robots.

Mike Mayo, head of research at Wells Fargo Securities, estimates that call-center employees and tellers at bank branches will be the first to go, with as many as a third of those jobs disappearing. Tech, sales, and consulting positions will be less affected, but total estimated cuts could still […]

China Blameless For Lost Jobs In US Says International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters building is seen ahead of the IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington, U.S., April 8, 2019. Discrediting popular belief that China is taking away developed countries’ manufacturing jobs, a new study from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found out that technology and the automation it brings is the driver of unemployment, not competition from China.

Other countries’ trade relations with China have been mutually beneficial over many years.

However, US workers, particularly factory workers, are losing their jobs and the current US administration is looking at China’s rising productivity because of the mainland’s low, though […]

5 ways Artificial Intelligence can boost employee productivity

5 ways Artificial Intelligence can boost employee productivity

An alliance with AI to reach the sky- AI is not artificial intelligence but augmented intelligence. It helps in employee productivity by dramatically reducing the transaction load. The Artificial Intelligence market, a multibillion-dollar industry is expected to leave a heavier footprint on the economy by rising further in the coming years.

According to statisca.com, AI is destined to grow into a $118.6 billion industry by 2025. Such statistics only reveal the fact that AI is bubbling with the massive potential of boosting employee productivity.

Of course, it would be wrong to regard AI as the enchanted arrow that never misses the […]

Artificial intelligence and the need to adapt

Artificial intelligence and the need to adapt

I remember my father-in-law saying to me, “You have cash and a checkbook, why do you need a credit card?”

When small computers were introduced to businesses, our family drug store purchased an IBM. The accounting package crashed so many times I thought it was a big waste of time and money and wondered, “who needs computers?”

When the internet and smartphones were introduced I had no idea how it was going to transform how we got our information. The changes these technologies have spurred affect how we buy everything today along with shrinking the world due to increased connectivity.Going back […]

Job loss and automation trend in many industries

Job loss and automation trend in many industries

Wells Fargo report predicts over 200,000 jobs will be lost.

The banking industry is investing $150 billion a year into tech.

Automation technologies are becoming increasingly more sophisticated. A new era of banking is upon us. The advent and rise of A.I. technological prowess is a force to be reckoned with. No industry is safe. The latest to be in the crosshairs is the banking industry.A recent report from analysts at Wells Fargo & Co. estimates that over 200,000 jobs will be cut over the next decade, as they claim there will be the "greatest transfer from labour […]