Tag: productivity

Peter Harris proposes later retirement age and a right to go back to school

Peter Harris proposes later retirement age and a right to go back to school

Policy wonks have gathered in frosty Melbourne to take the nation’s economic temperature. Things could be worse, but there are plenty of risks on the horizon. Do we need to convince Australians to work for longer, and make it easier to go back to study?

It’s often said we’re living through an age of uncertainty, but what’s the biggest point of uncertainty for the Australian economy?

Our polarised and often ineffectual politics? A heavily indebted China? Ageing? The budget? Trump? Brexit?Well that’s uncertain too, Productivity Commission chair Peter Harris told the first day of the Melbourne Institute’s Economic and Social Outlook […]

Workplace technology

The author says when automated teller machines (ATMs) were introduced, some thought bank tellers would be out of a job. It is important that we continue learning, both formal and non-formal, to upgrade our skills. Picture: SUPPLIED

LAST week I saw a young adult who had asked me to write a job reference walking by a prominent retail outlet in the Capital City. He looked depressed and I assumed he would recount how a loved one had passed away.

He had a different story to tell. In his new workplace, staff were not allowed to use their smartphones during work hours. […]

Microsoft Closes US Surface Factory, Moves Production to China

Microsoft Closes US Surface Factory, Moves Production to China

Back in 2015, Microsoft trumpeted the opening of a new factory in Wilsonville, stamping “Made in Portland, Oregon” on each and every huge touch-screen computer it made in the US. The company hired more than 100 people to build Surface Hubs. The Surface Hub is an extremely expensive machine , at ~$22,000, so this obviously wasn’t a high volume product. But Microsoft insisted it could make the economics work.

Now, just two years later, Microsoft has announced that it will close the Wilsonville plant and fire all 124 employees that worked there. Panos Panay, head of Surface development, went to […]

Automation is saving oil jobs. Can other industries learn?

Automation is saving oil jobs. Can other industries learn?

The "Speedscan" robot will perform fully automated quality control inspections of oil-field equipment at a new Baker Hughes Inc. customer solutions center opening in Cincinnati this year. With machines taking over equipment inspections, safety inspections and facility monitoring, oil companies can free up workers to perform other duties, lowering costs and increasing productivity. Baker Hughes In early 2016, the manufacturer Carrier Corp. announced 2,000 layoffs as the company shifted manufacturing to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor. The news made national headlines and prompted criticism from President Trump, who negotiated with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning company […]

Artificial Intelligence Will Widen The Gap Between Rich And Poor

Artificial Intelligence Will Widen The Gap Between Rich And Poor

BEIJING, CHINA – APRIL 14: An Ultraman-shaped robot makes shaved noodles in 10 seconds. It’s been working at the restaurant for over two years with no failure. Globally, the economic divide is growing. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In Australia, more than a quarter of households have recently experienced a decrease in income. The reasons for the growing economic divide are many and complex. They include factors such as job insecurity, wage cuts and underemployment.

Underemployment and unemployment are being affected by growing use of artificial intelligence in the workplace. As technology rapidly progresses, […]

More than 75% of American workers aren’t worried about their jobs being replaced by robots, AI

More than 75% of American workers aren't worried about their jobs being replaced by robots, AI

For all the hype about artificial intelligence (AI) completely replacing human jobs, the vast majority of Americans are still not very worried about it. According to the 2017 Randstad Employer Brand Research , released Tuesday, a whopping 76% of US workers do not fear that their job will be replaced by a machine.

In fact, only 14% of American employees hold this fear. And 30% actually welcome automation in the workplace, which they said could improve their current jobs.

The findings, which seems to contradict popular opinion, are based on a survey gauging employee attitudes about AI and automation. According to […]

Is Productivity Growth Becoming Irrelevant?

Is Productivity Growth Becoming Irrelevant?

LONDON – As the Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow noted in 1987 , computers are “everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” Since then, the so-called productivity paradox has become ever more striking. Automation has eliminated many jobs. Robots and artificial intelligence now seem to promise (or threaten) yet more radical change. Yet productivity growth has slowed across the advanced economies; in Britain, labor is no more productive today than it was in 2007.

Some economists see low business investment, poor skills, outdated infrastructure, or excessive regulation holding back potential growth. Others note wide disparities in productivity between leaders and laggards […]

Will a robot take your job?

Will a robot take your job?

taskmate robot BALTIMORE —

Robots taking over the world might sound like science fiction, but just how far from reality is it?

A new report by professional services firm Price Waterhouse Coopers predicts robots will take over 38 percent of American jobs by 2030.Take, for example, the "taskmate" robot that bevels the edges of a metal rod just like a human would do in a machine shop. One might imagine it would take a robotics engineer hours, even days, to program this multi-step task. Not so."I can teach you how to use this in 10 minutes. If you can play […]

The Finance 202: ‘Made in America’ week belies weak manufacturing numbers

The Finance 202: 'Made in America' week belies weak manufacturing numbers

(c) 2017, The Washington Post.

Welcome to "Made in America" Week, the latest attempt by the White House to get back on offense by hammering a theme from President Trump’s economic agenda.

If past is prologue, drama from the health-care debate and new Russia revelations – reinforced by Trump tweets – will swamp the message. And the domestic manufacturing push starts out as a tough sell for a president whose retail empire outsources much of its production abroad. Ditto for Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, whose own company relies exclusively on foreign factories in Bangladesh, Indonesia, China and elsewhere, […]

Employment 4.0: bug, not feature

Employment 4.0: bug, not feature

India is at the nightmare scenario of 50% of the labour force generating 11% of GDP. Photo: Bloomberg In the US, 31% of workers are now self-employed, freelancing or in gig economy work. But India is ahead of the US; about 75% of our labour force meets the same criteria. Uber is in the news for the wrong reasons but platform companies like it have already changed labour markets in rich countries and the model will influence even poor-country labour markets like India in the long run. But we’d like to make the case that a) India’s huge self-employment […]