Tag: inequality

How Automation Affects Employment

How Automation Affects Employment

Here is an excellent essay written by a Year 12 student on the title "Examine the possible impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on both the pattern of employment and rate of unemployment in countries such as the UK." One hundred and fifty years ago, and it would have been unfathomable to assume technology could have assimilated into every corner of our lives as it has now done. It has transformed productivity, help raise the material living standards of even the impoverished, and created employment in sectors that were unheard of not so long ago. In the late 18th […]

In automation and AI, many see a jobless future and higher inequality. But the technologically driven shift should be welcomed, say Christopher Pissarides & Jacques Bughin

In automation and AI, many see a jobless future and higher inequality. But the technologically driven shift should be welcomed, say Christopher Pissarides & Jacques Bughin

Ever since early-nineteenth-century textile workers destroyed the mechanical looms that threatened their livelihoods, debates over automation have conjured gloom-and-doom scenarios about the future of work.

With another era of automation upon us, how nervous about the future of our own livelihoods should we be?

A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that, depending on a country’s level of development, advances in automation will require 3-14% of workers worldwide to change occupations or upgrade their skills by the year 2030. Already, about 10% of all jobs in Europe have disappeared since 1990 during the first wave of routine-based technological change. […]

Automation and the Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market

Automation and the Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market

The Issue:

Automation has displaced workers in many occupations, from manufacturing to routine office jobs. New research finds that employment growth in high-paying jobs has slowed since the year 2000, and that this has been particularly true for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). One possible explanation is that rapid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are making it possible for a wider range of technically demanding jobs to get automated. High-paying jobs increasingly require skills that are more difficult to automate, such as those that involve significant interpersonal interaction. The Facts:

While there is much […]

Embracing the New Age of Automation

Embracing the New Age of Automation

With rapid advances in automation and artificial intelligence in recent years, many are worried about a jobless future and sky-high levels of inequality. But the large-scale technologically driven shift currently underway should be welcomed, and its adverse effects should be managed with proactive policies to reinvest in workers.

LONDON – Ever since early-nineteenth-century textile workers destroyed the mechanical looms that threatened their livelihoods, debates over automation have conjured gloom-and-doom scenarios about the future of work. With another era of automation upon us, how nervous about the future of our own livelihoods should we be? The world’s leading thinkers and policymakers […]

IPPR – Greater inequality not mass job losses most likely outcome of automation

New IPPR analysis shows that £290billion wages associated with jobs that could be automated

The total level of wages associated with jobs that have the technical potential to be automated in the UK is £290 billion per year, which represents 33% of all wages and earnings from labour in the economy, according to a new report published by IPPR, the progressive policy think tank, for the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice. The report further shows that low-wage jobs have more potential to be automated than high-wage jobs.

The new report from IPPR shows that work will be transformed, not eliminated, […]

Shift in working patterns means more men are working part time

Shift in working patterns means more men are working part time

The findings show an exponential rise when compared to two decades ago Big shifts in men’s working patterns over the last 20 years have seen increasing numbers working part time, a new study shows.

Almost one in eight men work part-time today, compared with fewer than one in 12 two decades ago, said the Resolution Foundation .

The think tank said more men in lower-paid roles are working fewer hours or part time, while higher-paid men are working more.These changes have led to a “hollowing out” of the male labour force, with fewer middle earners .The share of low-paid men earning […]

Jack in the Box CEO: If Wages Rise “It Just Makes Sense” to Replace My Employees With Robots

Jack in the Box CEO: If Wages Rise

Photo: Getty Images Jack in the Box CEO Leonard Comma says that higher minimum wages might result in him replacing staff with robots, Business Insider reported .

“As we see the rising costs of labor, it just makes sense,” Comma told the ICR Conference in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday.

As Grub Street noted , 18 states are seeing minimum wage increases in 2018, including Jack in the Box’s home state of California—where it was raised to $11 as part of a plan to raise it to $15 by 2023. Jack in the Box has experimented with automated checkout kiosks since 2009 […]

Will Robots Widen The Pay Gap For Women And Minorities?

Will Robots Widen The Pay Gap For Women And Minorities?

Our world is becoming automated; it’s a fact of our present and future reality. Self-driving vehicles are already in use within the construction, mining and nuclear industries; the logistics and supply chain sector largely relies on robotics and warehouse management systems, and even Cadillac is now offering virtual reality test drives for customers in showrooms.

According to McKinsey & Company, 45 percent of work activities could be automated and 60 percent of occupations could have one-third or more of their associated responsibilities replaced by robots. For a while now, research scientists, think tanks, economists and consultancies have deliberated over the […]

The Robot Revolution Is Coming

The Robot Revolution Is Coming

I’ve written about the possibility of a post-work society , where there are more people than there are jobs for people to do. I’ve become more convinced that we need to start thinking and talking about this, because that society isn’t a far-off daydream. The robot era isn’t in the distant future, it’s happening now , all around us, and our lives are going to change faster than we think .

The optimistic view is that automation will benefit everyone. Robots will perform the drudge work, freeing up humans to engage in more creative work or to invent new industries. […]

Automation Is Taking Humanity Beyond A “Jobs Economy,” Utopian Paradise and Dystopian Nightmare?

The future is often envisioned as some scenario between a utopian paradise and a dystopian nightmare. Sometimes, it is a utopia for an elite few and a dystopia for the rest of humanity. Technology almost always plays a central role in determining the fate of the world. As the year 2000 approached, the so-called Y2K Bug fueled fears modern technology would suddenly be lost. At the time, the modern lifestyles of those living in the developed world were increasingly dependent on technology. A programming oversight, i.e. the truncation of the year by the majority of software, had the potential […]