Tag: inequality

Robots ‘could make 400,000 West Yorkshire jobs obsolete in 20 years’, says report

Robots 'could make 400,000 West Yorkshire jobs obsolete in 20 years', says report

The study suggested the changes will not necessarily mean a loss of jobs overall, but warned inequality could get worse. Robots and automated technology threaten to make more than a third of jobs in West Yorkshire obsolete within 20 years, a report has warned.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority study said more than 400,000 jobs in the region are at risk, with low-skilled and manual work potentially worst affected by automation.

The study suggested the changes will not necessarily mean a loss of jobs overall, but warned inequality could get worse as “lower paid workers (are) likely to be […]

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 […]

Make robots pay taxes? Feds mull ways to adapt to job site automation, ‘gig’ economy

Make robots pay taxes? Feds mull ways to adapt to job site automation, ‘gig’ economy

Print this page A bricklaying robot known as SAM (Semi-Automated Mason) is one of the many examples of the drive toward further automation within the construction industry. PHOTO: Construction Robotics/YouTube OTTAWA—The Liberals have been told to consider taxing robots that displace workers, letting people pay their tax bill in kind rather than with cash, and work to prevent income inequality before it happens.

The ideas are part of a massive government effort to adapt to a rapidly changing workforce and stave off some of the strain it could cause on federal finances.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the access […]

Make robots pay taxes? Documents detail ideas to adapt to changing labour force

Make robots pay taxes? Documents detail ideas to adapt to changing labour force

The Liberals have been told to consider taxing robots that displace workers, letting people pay their tax bill in kind rather than with cash, and work to prevent income inequality before it happens.

The ideas are part of a massive government effort to adapt to a rapidly changing workforce and stave off some of the strain it could cause on federal finances.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the access to information law provide a window into the ideas the Liberals have been asked to consider as they modernize the social safety net and labour regulations.All the ideas are aimed […]

My turn: Working people must have a voice in our future

My turn: Working people must have a voice in our future

One in 12 Californians work independently, so-called gig economy workers. Photo via Pexels. For generations America’s promise has been that opportunity to create a better life for your family awaits if you work hard and play by the rules. But this Labor Day, that promise is more out of reach than ever for an increasing number of people.

Income inequality skyrockets as more of our nation’s gains go to an increasingly smaller group. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average chief executive officer of the 350 largest companies in the US raked in a whopping $18.9 million in compensation […]

Thanks to AI, the need for humans to work for survival could soon be at an end

Thanks to AI, the need for humans to work for survival could soon be at an end

Should we fear the rise of the robots? Earlier this month, a report warned that over 6 million workers in the UK fear losing their jobs as a result of developments in automation. The Bank of England has gone further: its own study in 2015 estimated that 15 million British jobs could be at risk; more recently Mark Carney, the bank’s governor, suggested job losses caused by the technological revolution could re-create conditions seen after the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The response to these warnings has been a flurry of comments in national newspapers, coloured by […]

The philosophy of profit over people

The philosophy of profit over people

Dear Editor,

The present world population is 7.6 billion as of August 2018 according to the most recent United Nations estimates. This is a testament of the success of human beings. From a biological perspective, we have been able to reach unprecedented population and still increasing with no end in sight. NASA plans to make oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars. Human beings are planning to take our species to populate distance planets in the future. In Belize people are more down to earth and care more about their quality of life, but everything is connected. In our modern world […]

Editorial: Raising minimum wage would cost jobs

Editorial: Raising minimum wage would cost jobs

Ballot drives for a $12 minimum wage and mandatory sick time appear to be headed for consideration in the Republican-controlled Legislature after Labor Day.

The calculus that has Republicans considering a move that would normally be anathema to their free-market principles is a political one, not an economic one.

The proposals likely would be a big lure for liberal-leaning voters to come out to the polls. That’s the situation Republicans are trying to avert in a year when many expect Democrats to make big gains, fueled by anti-Trump fervor. By passing the measures, the Legislature can keep the proposals off the […]

Britain faces social unrest because swathes of people are set to lose their jobs in robot revolution, Bank of England’s chief economist warns

Britain faces social unrest because swathes of people are set to lose their jobs in robot revolution, Bank of England's chief economist warns

There are calls for a massive skills drive to find employment for those set to be affected by the next wave of automation (file picture) There are calls for a massive skills drive to find employment for those set to be affected by the next wave of automation (file picture)

Britain faces the threat of social unrest as robots take ‘swathes’ of jobs, the Bank of England’s chief economist warned today.

Andy Haldane said the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution will see ‘the machine replacing humans doing thinking things’.He cautioned that the ‘dark side’ of the change could be disruption on a […]