Tag: employment

Universal basic income paid by a ‘robot tax’ is a bad idea

Universal basic income paid by a ‘robot tax’ is a bad idea

Thilo Brodtmann considers that the Parliament’s report on robots should have been a selection of "sensible suggestions" instead of a list of regulatory measures. Although the digitalisation of industry is a top priority among EU decision makers, Europe should not be concerned about job losses caused by growing automation. Instead, member states should teach the new generations the skills required for a digital future, believes the VDMA chief, Thilo Brodtman.

Thilo Brodtmann is the executive director of VDMA, the German mechanical engineering association representing more than 3,200 mainly small and medium -sized companies.

Brodtmann spoke to EurActiv.com’s Jorge Valero […]

Will Automation Make Employees Obsolete?

The subject of automation and robotics tends to strike fear in the hearts of job seekers and professionals in many career disciplines. Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, businesses have been introducing faster, more efficient and cost-effective equipment into their daily business operations.

Today, even the auto industry is looking to design a remote controlled vehicle that operates without the need for a driver at a steering wheel. Drones, of course, are now one of the most popular methods of delivery for many businesses.

While much of this equipment may sound like space age concepts, they have the tendencies to […]

Stuart Hall, Tyzack works out the future.

Stuart Hall, Tyzack works out the future.

The pace of technological change, shifting demographic patterns and economic globalisation are radically re-shaping the future of employment globally. This is something we have been witnessing since 2000, with the acceleration of a technological revolution, a radical transformation more comprehensive and more encompassing than anything we have seen before.

We are already experiencing the impact in staff reductions as a result of technology such as supermarket self-checkouts, ATM machines and robotics in the manufacturing sector, and whilst few doubt that the changes we’re experiencing hold great promise, the patterns of employment, production and consumption resulting from them are certainly creating […]

More than half of IT employees in India believe Automation & AI will impact their career advancement

More than half of IT employees in India believe Automation & AI will impact their career advancement

Mumbai: IT and ITES Industry is the largest employer in the private in India. As per NASSCOM, total employment strength in IT and BPM industry is 3.7 million. The whole industry is on the cusp of transformation with advancement of technology such as Automation & Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) popularly known as fourth Industrial Revolution. In line with changes in the industry, professionals working in this industry will also face the music.

Shift in skills and re-skilling phenomenon is catching up and will shape career of IT workforce. More than half of […]

Income inequality affecting the masses, expected to continue

Income inequality affecting the masses, expected to continue

Income inequality continues to increase, hitting the young with low skills the hardest. In the UK, 60% of the population has seen a stagnation or decrease in their disposable income. In the US, those below 30 with low levels of education are 15% worse off in 2012 than in 2002. Continued low growth, as well as the possible acceleration of automation and digitalisation, is likely to exuberate the situation, with the income of up to 80% of the workforce stagnant or declining to 2025.

Income inequality has become an issue for a range of stakeholders, forming a political flashpoint, […]

Skilling in the age of robots

Skilling in the age of robots

Upward graph for robots But what about human jobs? ktsdesign/shutterstock.com As automation begins to drive more sectors, the ability to adapt to change will be a crucial job requirement

Some 11 million by 2036 in the UK alone; 5 million worldwide by 2020. These apocalypse-sounding figures are the estimated number of jobs that will be lost to automation in the very near future.

Automation lies at the forefront of the so-called ‘fourth industrial revolution’, a process whereby the interaction of cyber and physical systems will profoundly change established economic and social structures. And this will happen on a scale, size and […]

Research probes future of horticultural labour

Research probes future of horticultural labour

Farm workers: sectors reliant on EU migration will need to plan for reduction in labour availability after leaving EU – image: USDA The future role of labour in agriculture and horticulture is now very much up for grabs, according to two new policy reports published this month. Faced with a potential decrease in supply of low-skill migrant labour and the phased introduction of the National Living Wage (NLW), and with a high degree of "routineness" in its lower- skilled tasks, food and farming stands out as the sector of the economy most ripe for automation, according to Robot Wars: […]

Automation: Why It Will Be Different

Automation: Why It Will Be Different

In the early 1800s, most people were employed in agriculture. Gradually, agriculture went from employing most people to employing ~2% of the population. No mass unemployment resulted. Similarly, advanced nations have seen employment in industry decline as production increases, again with no mass unemployment. Many conclude that even if the large majority of jobs are automated, we’ll find new jobs.

But in what? It’s hard to imagine, but didn’t they face the same problem in 1900? We do have jobs that someone in 1900 could not have imagined such the computer programmer, but most of the jobs people shifted to […]

Greens would set up Minister for Manufacturing within MBIE, if in Government

Greens would set up Minister for Manufacturing within MBIE, if in Government

Green Party co-leader James Shaw says National has dropped the ball on fighting for the interests of New Zealand’s manufacturing sector. The Greens will establish a Minister for Manufacturing if in Government, that would sit inside Cabinet and create "well-paid, clean-tech jobs".

Co-leader James Shaw made the policy announcement at a Christchurch-based knitting company on Thursday.

New working groups within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) would be created, rather than a creating a new Government department.Costs of reassigning resources in MBIE would be met within existing baselines, Shaw said. READ MORE: * A Labour-Green alliance met with […]

This expert thinks robots aren’t going to destroy many jobs. And that’s a problem.

This expert thinks robots aren't going to destroy many jobs. And that's a problem.

Javier Zarracina

If you follow news out of Silicon Valley, it’s easy to get the impression that we’re living through an era of unprecedented technological change. The modern smartphone is less than a decade old, yet it has already become ubiquitous in American society and allowed Apple and Google to become two of the most valuable companies in the world. And companies like Uber and Airbnb are bringing the internet revolution to industries as diverse as taxicabs and hotels.

Yet it’s hard to find evidence of rapid progress in the nation’s economic statistics. To the contrary, after the productivity of American […]