Tag: productivity

Reform laws to increase productivity

Reform laws to increase productivity

Many State governments have decided to either dilute or to freeze labour laws for three years. Such steps, though necessary, will alone not revive the economy.

The businessperson takes a decision to invest after considering a host of factors such as infrastructure, rule of law, enforcement of contracts, corruption, availability of loans, demand in the market, competition from imports, etc.

Labour laws are but one of these many considerations. For this reason, mere dilution of labour laws may not beget economic growth. No wonder, the relaxation of labour laws in Canada led to a reduction in employment; while strict labour laws […]

Which Labour Reforms?

Which Labour Reforms?

Bharat Jhunjhunwala
Many State Governments have decided to either dilute or to freeze labour laws for three years. Such steps, though necessary, will alone not revive the economy. The businessperson takes a decision to invest after considering a host of factors such as infrastructure, rule of law, enforcement of contracts, corruption, availability of loans, demand in the market, competition from imports, etc. Labour laws are but one of these many considerations. For this reason mere dilution of labour laws may not beget economic growth. No wonder, the relaxation of labour laws in Canada led to a reduction in employment; […]

View of the working future

WORLD War 1 speeded up the emancipation of women; World War 2 led to the creation of welfare states in all the industrialised countries.

What great change will the Covid-19 crisis bring us?

This crisis has not yet killed tens of millions, and it probably never will.No great empires have fallen, and no human villain can be blamed for the problem. Yet there will probably be changes as great as those after the two world wars.One great change will be in the pace of automation.As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it, we have seen “two years’ worth of digital transformation in […]

No, the Pandemic Will Not Bring Jobs Back From China

No, the Pandemic Will Not Bring Jobs Back From China

No idea has been more central to U.S. President Donald Trump’s philosophy of “America first” than bringing jobs back home. In his 2017 inaugural address, he lamented that “one by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind.” Under his presidency, a newly elected Trump promised, “we will bring back our jobs.”Lighthizer cast the pandemic as an overdue comeuppance for U.S. companies that had offshored production to lower-wage countries.

More than three years later and in the most unlikely of scenarios—a pandemic that has killed […]

The rise of robot recruitment

The rise of robot recruitment

Human connection is more important than ever as the world battles COVID-19 SoftBank announces $41bn asset sale after COVID-19 struggles Applicant tracking systems, or ‘resume robots’, can instantly scan CVs for keywords and essential skills, eliminating candidates so that human recruiters don’t have to. This is changing the role of HR teams significantly Nobody likes applying for a new job. As much as you may despise your current role, the process of tidying up your CV and crafting an eloquent cover letter that simultaneously portrays you as an independent thinker and the world’s best team player is tedious work. […]

Why Our Economy May Be Headed for a Decade of Depression

Why Our Economy May Be Headed for a Decade of Depression

The worst is yet to come? Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images In September 2006, Nouriel Roubini told the International Monetary Fund what it didn’t want to hear. Standing before an audience of economists at the organization’s headquarters, the New York University professor warned that the U.S. housing market would soon collapse — and, quite possibly, bring the global financial system down with it. Real-estate values had been propped up by unsustainably shady lending practices, Roubini explained. Once those prices came back to earth, millions of underwater homeowners would default on their mortgages, trillions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities would […]

Labour productivity per employment records drop in Q12020

Labour productivity per employment records drop in Q12020

The Department of Statistics has revealed that the labour productivity per employment has dropped. –BERNAMA pic KUALA LUMPUR: The Department of Statistics has revealed that the labour productivity per employment has dropped to 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

Statistician chief Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the national labour productivity declined to 0.8 per cent from 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year with value added per employment was at RM22,578 per person in the first quarter of 2020 compared to RM24,263 last year.

"Despite slower economic performance at 0.7 per cent, […]

Commentary: Pandemic makes a universal basic income look better

Universal basic income was a popular topic in the U.S. before COVID-19 — in a theoretical sense. Now a pandemic is providing a tragic preview of some of the conditions UBI was conceived to address. And, though there are some important qualifications, COVID-19 is making UBI look better.

Up until a few months ago, the argument for UBI was that the rate of automation and productivity growth would be increasing faster than the rate of job creation. Artificial intelligence is often cited as a harbinger of mass layoffs. Those concerns are largely overblown, but — so the thinking went — […]

US researchers find that every robot replaces 3.3 jobs

US researchers find that every robot replaces 3.3 jobs

American researchers have calculated that every new industrial robot installed in the US between 1993 and 2007 replaced 3.3 jobs. But in a separate analysis of French industry from 2010 to 2015, they have also found that firms that adopt robots quickly became more productive and hire more workers, while their competitors fall behind and shed workers – with jobs again being reduced overall.

The results have been published in a series of three papers written by Professor Daron Acemoglu, an economist at MIT, with several co-authors. In one of the papers , Acemoglu and Dr Pascual Restrepo, an assistant […]

When machines think for us: consequences for work and place

When machines think for us: consequences for work and place

The one sure way not to forecast the impact of artificial-intelligence technologies is technological determinism. Judith Clifton Will artificial intelligence affect how and where we work? To what extent is AI already fundamentally reshaping our relationship to work? Over the last decade, there has been a boom in academic papers, consultancy reports and news articles about these possible effects of AI—creating both utopian and dystopian visions of the future workplace. Despite this proliferation, AI remains an enigma, a newly emerging technology, and its rate of adoption and implications for the structure of work are still only beginning to be […]