Tag: productivity

Around the web: America’s missing start-ups, AI and employment, and students’ views on the First Amendment

Where have all the start-ups gone? — NYT We’ve got lots of pieces now that say dynamism has gone down a lot since 2000,” said John Haltiwanger, a University of Maryland economist who has done much of the pioneering work in the field. “Start-ups have gone down a lot since 2000, especially in the high-tech sectors, and there are increasingly strong links to productivity.” What is behind the decline in entrepreneurship is less clear. Economists and other experts have pointed to a range of possible explanations: The aging of the baby-boom generation has left fewer Americans in their prime […]

U.S. Textiles: Have No Fear, Automation Is Here

U.S. Textiles: Have No Fear, Automation Is Here

Switzerland-based Stäubli is a mechatronics provider with three dedicated activities: Connectors, Robotics and Textile. Automation continues to assist the growth of U.S. manufacturing.

By James Borneman, Editor In Chief

A common thread in recent investments in the U.S. textile industry seems to be the effectiveness of automation and process control in making the United States a globally competitive manufacturing destination. Many announcements cite four factors driving investment in U.S. textiles — superior cotton supply chain, relatively inexpensive and dependable energy supply, highly educated labor force that can handle automation, and good transportation infrastructure including ports and roads.The automation […]

Can robots coexist with humans?

Can robots coexist with humans?

Working together: will robots be central to our future? Katie Dolamore

With advances in artificial intelligence forging ahead, it’s time to think seriously about how we see robots fitting into our society.

Of all the tech trends dominating headlines at the moment, artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be generating the most debate.As we continue to develop this technology – at a seemingly exponential rate – we face increasing pressure to examine the role we really want it to fulfil, and how it should be integrated.With many high-profile figures – from Stephen Hawking to Elon Musk – warning of […]

Why international trade matters for Illinois

Why international trade matters for Illinois

Illinois will need more foreign investment, and major reforms to the state’s business climate, in order to get off the weak economic path it now treads.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has just returned from an eight-day trip to Japan and China – his administration’s first international trade mission.

Illinoisans should hope the governor can help bring international job creators and investment to the state to stimulate a lackluster employment picture. Rather than being a burden on Illinois families, international trade has largely served as a blessing, and has the potential to jumpstart the Land of Lincoln’s sluggish growth. State of the state […]

Will automation kill South African jobs? No, say new studies

Will automation kill South African jobs? No, say new studies

South Africa: in need of speeding-up economic productivity with more innovation. Photo: Credit: Arne Hoel/World Bank The 4th Industrial Revolution is here: driverless cars, 3-D printing, and Artificial Intelligence are the future. These innovations deliver the promise of better and more convenient lives to many. But they also disrupt the way in which we used to do things, including the way we work.

It is true that automation is a threat to many jobs, especially the unskilled ones more easily be replaced by machines and computers. In South Africa, unemployment stands at 27.7%—or 36.6% when including those who have given […]

Stifling Innovation in San Francisco

Stifling Innovation in San Francisco

San Francisco is home to some of the most successful technology companies, to the point that the city could be called the cradle of innovation. Even as companies headquartered in San Francisco develop new technologies or novel products, some of the city’s bureaucrats have recently expressed support for policies that would hinder further innovation.

City supervisor Norman Yee wants to prohibit food delivery robots, citing concerns about space and potential lost delivery jobs. His push goes in the opposite direction of some other jurisdictions that have made efforts to create a framework that would encourage pilot demonstrations and further developments […]

Why skills and education are the real robot battleground

Why skills and education are the real robot battleground

This has been a record-breaking year for industrial robotics, says the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) of the US.

In total, over 19,000 industrial robots worth $1 billion were sold in North America alone during the first half of 2017, the highest ever number of orders for the region. The figures reveal a one-third year-on-year increase in shipments for the first two quarters, and a 26% surge in spending.

Orders grew most in the automotive sector, which saw a 39% increase in purchases. Globally, the automotive robotics market is set to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.74 per […]

How Singapore is preparing for jobs of the future

How Singapore is preparing for jobs of the future

Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Manpower and Home Affairs, spoke on Jobs of 2037 at the Milken Institute Asia Summit yesterday:

Future-gazing is an inherently risky enterprise.

Before 1997, who would have thought Asia was headed for a financial crisis? Just three years later, the dot.com bubble burst almost as quickly as it built up. I remember the shock of the Sept 11 attacks the following year, and the terrifying Sars epidemic of 2003.In more recent times, we’ve witnessed a global financial crisis, the Arab Spring and the Brexit vote.None of these […]

Is the Old Sourcing Model Dead?

Is the Old Sourcing Model Dead?

A textile factory | Source: Shutterstock LONDON, United Kingdom — The fear that robots will one day take our jobs is almost palpable across many industries today. Fashion is no different, with technology set to shift the current apparel sourcing model to such an extent that the supply chain as we know it may soon cease to exist.

On the one hand, the so-called “march of the machines” puts a staggering 231 million jobs at risk across 50 countries for manufacturing as a whole, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. But on the other hand, it allows an industry to […]

John Phelan: Wage mandates drive investment toward machines, away from labor

For the last few years there’s been a pretty brutal meme circulating online. You might have seen it. It shows a customer-operated ordering machine in a restaurant with the caption “This is a fast food worker on $15 minimum wage.” New research suggests that those meme makers might have been right.

In a new paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research (“People Versus Machines: The Impact of Minimum Wages On Automobile Jobs”), economists Grace Lordan and David Neumark examine whether minimum-wage laws prompt employers to switch to using machines instead of labor. Their research focuses particularly on “automatable jobs […]