Tag: liberal

McKinsey – the digital skills gap will get worse as cognitive automation intensifies

McKinsey – the digital skills gap will get worse as cognitive automation intensifies

I’ve been making fun of the periodic “IT skills crisis” proclamations long before we launched diginomica five years ago.

After a couple of decades, shouldn’t the sensationalism of a perpetual skills “crisis” give way to a more sober outlook? I’m cynical about the “crisis” language for two reasons: It fosters a misleading optimism for job seekers, who assume that investing in technical certifications will lead to immediate employment. Bottom-feeding pseudo-training companies exploit this hope.

The skills “crisis” is usually accompanied by proclamations from companies about talent shortages, when in fact the real problem is a lack of imagination in skills […]

The rise of the “Automacene”: How robots will define the next epoch in human history

The rise of the “Automacene”: How robots will define the next epoch in human history

(Shuttestock/Salon) Forget the Anthropocene — the next epoch in human history will be defined by AI and automation. Are we ready?

I’ve always had a close relationship with robots — even a fondness for them. When I was a kid I had a Baby Alive doll, mass-produced in the 1970s by Kenner. The baby ate through its battery-operated mouth and subsequently pooped, a ridiculously simple simulation of the real-life care of a newborn. In the wake of an avalanche of news on the ethical implications of technology — whether that’s Google bowing out of the military’s Project Maven or […]

Guaranteed jobs may not solve the Democrats’ bigger problem with many voters

Policies to ensure everyone has a job sound appealing. But they may not help Democrats at the ballot box, and aren’t economically realistic.

The next big idea from the Democrats is a universal guarantee of a job to everyone who wants one.

Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders, all potential candidates for president in 2020, have endorsed some version of the idea.Booker would start with a pilot program in 15 urban and rural areas, using federal funds to provide employment at $15 an hour.Gillibrand went considerably further. She told The Nation magazine, “Guaranteed jobs programs, creating floors for wages […]

Our workplace is ready for Brexit, say LIAM FOX AND ESTHER MCVEY

Our workplace is ready for Brexit, say LIAM FOX AND ESTHER MCVEY

‘We now have the lowest unemployment rate for 42 years’ More than 3.2 million more people have moved into work over this period – that’s over 1,000 people entering employment a day, every day.

We now have the lowest unemployment rate for 42 years at 4.2 per cent, and wages are outpacing inflation. This reality is a far cry from the predictions made at the time of the Brexit vote.

A job provides for career progression and with it wage progression. It is therefore important the Government grasps the opportunities Brexit brings.And this is exactly what we are doing as we […]

Will robots and AI take your job? The economic and political consequences of automation

Will robots and AI take your job? The economic and political consequences of automation

In Edward Bellamy’s classic Looking Backward , the protagonist Julian West wakes up from a 113-year slumber and finds the United States in 2000 has changed dramatically from 1887. People stop working at age forty-five and devote their lives to mentoring other people and engaging in volunteer work that benefits the overall community. There are short work weeks for employees, and everyone receives full benefits, food, and housing. [1] The reason is that new technologies of the period have enabled people to be very productive while working part-time. Businesses do not need large numbers of employees, so individuals can […]

Democrats can campaign on technology for edge in 2020

Democrats can campaign on technology for edge in 2020

© Getty Images While most Democratic candidates are ramping up for the 2018 midterm elections, at least two hopefuls have cast their gazes farther afield. Last year, John Delaney , a congressman representing Maryland’s sixth district, and Andrew Yang, a New York author and entrepreneur, threw their hats into the ring for the 2020 presidential election, leaving pundits baffled at their early and unexpected announcements. Both are longshots to win — Delaney is a little-known third-term representative and Yang is likely to double his campaign as a book tour for his manifesto, “The War on Normal People,” which hit […]

If You Read One Higher Ed Book This Year, Make it ‘Robot-Proof’

If You Read One Higher Ed Book This Year, Make it 'Robot-Proof'

Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence , by Joseph E. Aoun (MIT Press, 2017)

It is not an accident that I’m putting my review of Robot-Proof in "Inside Digital Learning ." My goal is to drive maximum awareness of this book among anyone thinking about the future of higher education.

Aoun, a linguist who also happens to head Northeastern University, makes the case that our economy is on the cusp of enormous change. He is largely supportive of the argument that accelerating improvements in the bundle of technologies that comprise artificial intelligence (sensors, processing, big data analysis) will […]

Technology and future of real estate practice

SIR: Global outlook generally is that 21st century is going to be driven largely by technological changes. Nobody ever thought 20 years ago for instance that someday there will be something called electric and chargeable cars that will suddenly eliminate the use of fuel and driver. The world is fast changing and very rapidly for that matter; the old order is fast crumbling and new ones are equally emerging fast.

Across the world, companies, organizations and even governments respond to the rapidly evolving technology by creating new business and operating models for unmanned aerial vehicles, otherwise known as Drones which […]

Which are the top sectors that generate employment in India?

Which are the top sectors that generate employment in India?

Since 1990-91, the construction sector added almost as many new non-farm jobs as the next four top job-generating sectors—trade, miscellaneous services, transport and storage, and education—put together. Photo: Reuters New Delhi: India’s liberalization in 1991 was premised on the idea that it would make local industries more competitive, helping them capture world markets, which in turn would enable millions of Indian workers to move away from low-productivity farm jobs to high-productivity factory jobs.

A quarter century later, how far has that dream been realized?

Data from the KLEMS India database on employment and productivity published recently by the Reserve Bank of […]

ADB Raises Asia Growth Rate, Warns of Trade Tension Risks

ADB Raises Asia Growth Rate, Warns of Trade Tension Risks

While some companies have developed robots that can sew clothes, the high cost of these machines means that many garment makers still prefer to expand their workforce in countries such as Bangladesh (picture), Ethiopia and Vietnam. T he Asian Development Bank raised its 2018 economic growth estimate for developing Asia to 6% from 5.8%, citing solid export demand, but said US protectionist measures and any retaliation against them could undermine trade.

Growth in developing Asia would only ease slightly to 5.9% in 2019, the bank said in its 2018 Asian Development Outlook released on Wednesday. Strong external and domestic demand […]