Tag: productivity

Is College Really Worth It?

Is College Really Worth It?

The question of whether college is worth it is a fairly new one in the scheme of things. When you’re looking at payment options so you can afford college , you have to deal with the fact that tuition has gone up by 296 percent since 1995. A price increase of this magnitude is hard to deal with when post-collegiate employment options don’t look promising. It’s not that there aren’t any jobs available. It’s that wages are low and the cost of living is high, making it hard to pay off student loans.

A recent poll found 47 percent don’t […]

The Next Hot Millennial Trend: Never-Ending Labor in Dystopian Warehouses

The Next Hot Millennial Trend: Never-Ending Labor in Dystopian Warehouses

The death of retail, workers’ rights, and pension plans have sent migrant seniors into the arms of Amazon. What does this mean for a generation saddled with debt?

Allie Conti

Sep 27 2017, 5:25pm All photos by Jessica Bruder As online retail has become a way of life, the classic American shopping mall has been presented with seemingly inevitable extinction. Mom-and-pop stores succumbing to big-box competitors is an old story, but these days even retail behemoths like J.Crew , Sears, and Kmart are in trouble . One recent casualty on this front was Toys R Us, […]

Rather than taxing robots, we should be redesigning jobs

Rather than taxing robots, we should be redesigning jobs

The future is not human or machine; it is human and machine Credit: Nic Delves Recent years have seen a succession of scare stories about the impact of AI on future employment. And figures as diverse as Bill Gates and, this week, Jeremy Corbyn have called for a tax on robots . But the hype about them taking our jobs is based largely on human conjecture. It misses two things.

Firstly, in terms of outlook, if we take action to prepare for the future of work, the digital transformation gives us a real opportunity to improve the life chances of […]

Rise of the robots could help printers

Rise of the robots could help printers

Robots could replace 4 million jobs in the British private sector in the next decade, according to new research, but analysts argue that robotics and automation could help rather than hinder print. ABB Robotics’ YuMi robot, which can operate safely alongside humans A poll conducted by YouGov for the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), which analysed government datasets and asked business leaders and employers about the future of automation and artificial intelligence, found that up to 15% of the current workforce in the private sector could be replaced by robots.

Jobs in finance and accounting, transport and distribution, manufacturing, and […]

Is a universal basic income the answer to rampant automation?

Opinionista Ivo Vegter

The notion of a universal basic income (UBI), paid by the state out of tax revenue to every citizen, is widely seen as a necessary measure to guard against structural unemployment caused by technological progress. Is it?

The notion that automation, artificial intelligence and robotics will put many, if not all, of us out of work, is gaining traction. The idea is neatly (but wrongly, in my opinion) summed up in a video by the wonderful CGP Grey, entitled Humans Need Not Apply . Grey argues that this time it really is different. A similar view is held […]

Driverless trucks will be (mostly) great

Driverless trucks will be (mostly) great

© Haiyin As the US haulage business looks to become more expensive as new rules come in next year, and with demand outstripping supply, the argument over driverless trucks is getting louder. Here Bloomberg examines the merits – which include, oddly enough, better benefits and pay for truck drivers. It reports that truck drivers will still be needed for urban areas and to override the system if required, but as they will need technology know-how, they would be paid more. That comes hand in hand with lower costs elsewhere – driver hours will be less important, convoys will reduce […]

Automation refusal puts livelihoods in jeopardy

Automation refusal puts livelihoods in jeopardy

Around 3,000 BCE, written language emerged for the first time in human history. The rise of city-states engendered an ever-growing economy, and people could no longer maintain transactional records solely in their minds. Economic progress would halt unless someone found a way to solve the problem of our limited memory.

Such is the genesis of writing and technology — birthed as a solution to a problem, a pathway to progress.

There is much anxiety around automation, understandably so. In the modern economy, humans are employed to the extent that the job at hand requires physical labor, cognitive ability or both. Since […]

Mexico Could See Employment Increase as a Result of Automation, Study Finds

Mexico Could See Employment Increase as a Result of Automation, Study Finds

Industrial automation is more likely to create new jobs in Mexico than increase unemployment, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in a new report.

The study, which is centered on new technologies that threaten jobs across the world, has found that manufacturers who increase efficiency with robotics tend to expand their operations, leading to the generation of more jobs .

“The increased use of robots in Mexico has also been associated with expanding employment,” the report noted.The automotive sector, which implements robotics on a wide scale, accounts for 20% of Mexico’s manufacturing jobs, while the electronics […]

Driverless Trucks Will Be (Mostly) Great

Driverless Trucks Will Be (Mostly) Great

A little scary. Mostly good. For generations, the open road has provided good jobs for Americans, whether truckers, novelists or country-music lyricists. Soon it may be crowded with some less sympathetic protagonists: self-driving robots.

Trucks with some degree of automation are already plying ore mines, hauling freight and making beer runs. Investment is pouring into the industry. As Congress debates a new law to promote self-driving technology, however, it may exempt big commercial vehicles in the hope of saving trucking jobs. That won’t work. But it might succeed in holding back innovation and growth.

For starters, automation doesn’t only replace jobs. […]

WE NEED FRESH IDEAS FOR RETHINKING PRODUCTIVITY

WE NEED FRESH IDEAS FOR RETHINKING PRODUCTIVITY

The recent OCED ( Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ) “Compendium of Productivity 2017” publication showed global growth, measured by GDP (Gross Domestic Product), should rise from 2.1% in 2016, to 3.5% in 2017, and 3.7% in 2018. Though this is good news, these growth numbers are below those before the financial crises started in 2008.

The OCED report states most of the world is stuck in a “low growth trap” . OCED has put the spotlight on productivity as the causality. Productivity continues to decline over the long term, way before the global financial crises.

OCED shows that productivity […]