Tag: productivity

How Robots Are Changing Minnesota’s Workforce

How Robots Are Changing Minnesota's Workforce

Photo by Ibrahim Hirsi/MinnPost Baxter, a two-armed robot, has been with Atlas Manufacturing for more than a year, performing tasks that would otherwise require two human operators. Atlas Manufacturing is just one of a growing number of places in Minnesota and across the country where automation is quickly and radically transforming the labor market.

On the main floor of Minneapolis-based Atlas Manufacturing, Baxter is hard at work: She places metal pieces on a giant machine in a process that bends and punches parts before picking up the pieces and carefully arranging them on a nearby counter.

It’s a repetitive task, […]

Trump’s Dismantling of Trade Deals Won’t Bring Most Jobs Back

Trump’s Dismantling of Trade Deals Won’t Bring Most Jobs Back

Trump in Charleston, West Virginia on May 5. Dramatic promises to restrict international trade were a signature element of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. So far, he seems to be following through. On Tuesday, he announced that he will withdraw U.S. participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership as one of his first acts in office.

Trump’s aggressive stance on trade helped him win working-class voters in Midwestern manufacturing states, where upset wins swept him into the White House. As president, Trump will be able to act on trade without approval by Congress. Both the U.S. Constitution and past acts of Congress give […]

Robots – not trade deals – killed factory jobs

Robots - not trade deals - killed factory jobs

Tonawanda Engine Plant Manager Steve Finch, right, says humans have to install, program and maintain the robots, so “it doesn’t mean that because I’ve put a robot in there that I’ve gotten rid of all the jobs.” (News file photo) Donald Trump’s critics fear he will turn back the clock, while backers fervently hope he can. But when it comes to one of his key campaign promises – bringing back manufacturing jobs lost to other countries – they are both missing the point.

Factory workers worried about their jobs as they rack up holiday bills should forget the question of […]

Thomas Friedman: Automation Is Killing Jobs

Thomas Friedman: Automation Is Killing Jobs

The world would be a much better place if the folks who wrote on economic issues at the NYT had at least an intro econ level understanding of economics. But apparently that is too much to expect, so we find Thomas Friedman telling readers:

"The one area where I think Trump is going to have the hardest time delivering on his campaign promises is to create ‘millions’ of good-paying jobs by incentivizing and pressuring American companies to manufacture more in the U.S. He still talks about America as a manufacturing wasteland when, in fact, manufacturing remains the largest sector of […]

Trump is right to ditch TPP. How about the WTO next?

Trump is right to ditch TPP. How about the WTO next?

President-elect Donald Trump faces heavy pressure from the establishment to abandon his campaign promises on trade policy. His announcement on Monday saying that he would pull out of President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on his first day in office shows that he’s not giving in – and for the sake of a healthy economy he must stand his ground.

Tune into Worldwide Exchange on Wednesday Nov. 23 at 5:15 am when Alan Tonelson will make a guest appearance.

Trade supporters are employing arguments that have repulsed challengers for decades, at least in the halls of government: that the string […]

How robots are changing Minnesota’s workforce

How robots are changing Minnesota's workforce

Baxter, a two-armed robot, has been with Atlas Manufacturing for more than a year, performing tasks that would otherwise require two human operators. On the main floor of Minneapolis-based Atlas Manufacturing, Baxter is hard at work: She places metal pieces on a giant machine in a process that bends and punches parts before picking up the pieces and carefully arranging them on a nearby counter.

It’s a repetitive task, and at times, agonizing. But Baxter doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she’s able to do the work around the clock throughout the year — without requiring lunch breaks. Or sick […]

‘Technological Automation and the Soft Skill Revolution’ has no comments

'Technological Automation and the Soft Skill Revolution' has no comments

In 2014 technology research firm Gartner projected that one-third of global jobs will be replaced by robotics, software, or machine learning by 2025. While technological advancements have been shifting entire labor markets since the beginning of time, the rate at which Moore’s Law is increasingly blurring the lines between algorithmic computing and human decision making promises to make this era of automation far different than those that have come before.

As about half of all jobs in both the U.S. and OECD countries become automated over the next two decades, governments and firms across the world must adapt to a […]

Technology is exacerbating unemployment and wage stagnation – and it’s set to only get worse

Technology is exacerbating unemployment and wage stagnation – and it's set to only get worse

In Silicon Valley, only 1.8 per cent of workers are employed in new industries For most people, a secure, fairly paid job is the difference between a reasonable life and destitution. Today changes in the structure of the work force make this objective increasingly elusive.

Technology exacerbated declines in employment and incomes by eliminating certain tasks and deskilling many jobs. Robotics and complex computerised equipment successfully replaced often skilled labour. Computer software is now replacing journalists being able to synthesise news items electronically up crawling the worldwide web. Even traders in financial markets are being replaced by automated algorithms.

In the […]

Manufacturing Jobs Aren’t Coming Back

Manufacturing Jobs Aren’t Coming Back

Pundits will debate the wellsprings of Donald Trump’s election triumph for years. Right now, cultural explanations are in the lead. Multiple researchers and journalists are stressing the role of "racial resentments" and xenophobia as the deepest sources of Trump’s appeal. And such explanations cannot be dismissed.

But the decades-long decline of U.S. manufacturing employment and the highly automated nature of the sector’s recent revitalization should also be high on the list of explanations. The former is an unmistakable source of the working class rage that helped get Trump elected. The latter is the main reason Trump won’t be able to […]

Trump’s jobs plan faces a bigger challenge than China

Trump's jobs plan faces a bigger challenge than China

Robots may prevent Trump from bringing back the manufacturing jobs he promised. Source: Reuters President-elect Donald Trump has promised to wage a war against globalization, to bring back jobs that corporations have sent abroad. But what about all the jobs that simply don’t exist anymore, left behind by advances in technology?

For anyone in the US manufacturing economy Trump has been describing, a job lost to China looks and feels identical to a job lost to technology, making it hard to effectively get to the bottom of what’s happening—and how to fix it for the American workforce.

From Federal Reserve data, […]