Tag: productivity

David Rosenberg: Trump is pointing the finger at the wrong culprit on job losses

David Rosenberg: Trump is pointing the finger at the wrong culprit on job losses

If Donald Trump doesn’t carry out his protectionist threats, he risks being a one-term president, writes David Rosenberg. Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz delivered a terrific speech last week that is definitely worth a read, basically about how “creative destruction” is mostly at play behind this ever-declining share of manufacturing employment across the globe, no longer just confined to the developed world, either.

Here are some of the more lucid findings:

“Economists’ understanding of the evolution of economies is based on hundreds of years of history. Advances in technology lead to higher productivity and greater production, which in turn […]

Trump’s Carrier deal aside, here’s why most US factory jobs aren’t coming back

Trump's Carrier deal aside, here's why most US factory jobs aren't coming back

Drew Greenblatt, owner of Baltimore-based Marlin Steel, is already seeing a revival of U.S. manufacturing — even before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.

His company, which makes steel wire baskets, saw an influx of new orders the day after the election that was big enough for him to hire four new workers.

Four new jobs is a start toward Trump’s goal of rebuilding the U.S. manufacturing base. But no matter what policies he puts in place, or deals he strikes, it’s unlikely factories will create enough new jobs to replace the millions that have been lost to offshoring and […]

Here’s how AI will save jobs, not destroy them

Here's how AI will save jobs, not destroy them

FILE: Honda’s Asimo robot. Picture: AZAdam via Flickr/Wikimedia Commons. In the latter half of the 1980s a debate ensued between two camps of economists roughly grouped around the views of Edward Prescott, on the one hand, and Lawrence Summers, on the other.

Prescott argued that by and large, the booms and busts of the economic cycle were due to “technological shocks”; and Summers dismissed the notion as speculation not supported by evidence.

Over the years, the ‘technological shock’ model of economic shifts (TS) has surfaced over and over again in many forms, rising to the occasion whenever the debate over cycles […]

Displaced by Automation in Shanghai

Displaced by Automation in Shanghai

The CEO walked a group of visitors through the pristine, brightly lit factory. Robotic arms rotated and embedded memory chips into place. A small autonomous vehicle carrying parts rolled around the factory floor while playing a Bach sonatina. At some workstations, employees in protective clothing packed products into boxes and performed intricate soldering as the circuit boards traveled down a slow-moving conveyor belt.

“Not all the people are working very hard, but the robots are working hard,” the CEO noted. Indeed. In the past year, after installing sophisticated automated equipment, the number of human factory workers had fallen from 3,500 […]

Confusion about job creation is obscuring America’s productivity crisis

Confusion about job creation is obscuring America's productivity crisis

Robots work on a new Volkswagen Crafter production line at the newly opened Volkswagen factory in Wrzesnia near Poznan, Poland, in September. There is perhaps no other topic in economics that is more prone to illogical thinking than job creation. It is a wellspring of hysterical nonsense.

Let’s start with the canard that technology and automation kill jobs. Notwithstanding the fact that US productivity growth rates are at an all-time low, a growing chorus blames technology for killing our jobs. Writing in The New Yorker, NYU professor Gary Marcus alleges that, “as machines continue to get smarter, cheaper, and more […]

Automation, Jobs And The New Techno-Pessimism

Automation, Jobs And The New Techno-Pessimism

A strange vision is gaining traction in the developed world: a vision of a future economy so dramatically changed by technology that it is beyond recognition. This is not the apocalyptic prophecy of a real-world Skynet, turning computerised gadgets and artificial intelligence systems against the human population, but a growing fear of automation replacing people in an increasingly robotised world of work.

While it is plain to see how machines have improved humanity’s lot in the past despite putting their overlords out of work, some argue that this time, it is different. No doubt, sophisticated IT and AI are likely […]

Divide and Automate

Divide and Automate

Illustration by Lydia Wojack-West

As a species, we are poised at the brink of a transformation unlike any before.

The ancestor of this coming metamorphosis was not political or philosophical in nature; it did not emerge from the ashes of the American Revolution or the Bolshevik’s, nor did it germinate from the teachings of Jesus, Buddha or Muhammad. The predecessor to the singularity we so boldly march toward was something far more primordial, far more tangible. It was industrial.The last three industrial revolutions transformed the fabric of human civilization: The first, borne of steam and coal, powered newly invented […]

Mexico taking US factory jobs? Blame robots instead

Mexico taking US factory jobs? Blame robots instead

1 of 2 A worker loads spools of thread Oct. 21 at the Repreve Bottle Processing Center, part of the Unifi textile company in Yadkinville. America has lost more than 7 million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked in 1979. Yet American factory production, minus raw materials and some other costs, more than doubled over the same span to an inflation-adjusted $1.91 trillion last year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. That’s a notch below the record set on the eve of the Great Recession in 2007, and it makes U.S. manufacturers No. 2 in the world behind China.

WASHINGTON […]

Epic infographic from TradeMachines confirms global takeover by robots

Epic infographic from TradeMachines confirms global takeover by robots

Vintage and pre-owned industrial equipment supplier TradeMachines has produced a massive infographic which provides insights about the impacts of industrial robots on our work life.

Industry 4.0 marks the dawn of a new era for robotics, which are starting to be an integral part of factories, all over the world.

In recent years, robots sales have exponentially increased: in 2015, 1.8 million industrial robots were in operation; that is more than the whole population of Philadelphia.Nowadays, sectors like automotive build most of their working processes on automated systems, as evidenced by the […]

Some jobs are going but it’s automation, not free trade, that’s the problem

Some jobs are going but it’s automation, not free trade, that’s the problem

There has been a lot of talk of late – especially fired up due to the US presidential election – over the loss of manufacturing jobs. It is not a new phenomenon, after all Bruce Springsteen was singing in 1984 that “these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back”. And while the blame is easily laid at the feet of trade, figures from the USA show that the bigger reason is automation – and it will not be limited to manufacturing.

One of the problems with Trump’s narrative that free-trade agreements have been the major cause of job […]