Tag: Services

Why Are Politicians Looking At Universal Basic Income?3 min read

Why Are Politicians Looking At Universal Basic Income?3 min read

In a 2018 poll, nearly half of Americans supported the idea of a Universal Basic Income program. This model that was created in hopes to increase equality and reduce poverty has been gaining popularity over time, dating back as early as 1516 with Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ philosophy. Following More’s ideas on the benefits of a minimum income, Thomas Paine proposed a plan in 1796 to provide a basic endowment for all adults over 21 years of age. And if those names don’t ring a bell, in 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. was convinced that a guaranteed income is a […]

What do automation and artificial intelligence mean for Africa?

What do automation and artificial intelligence mean for Africa?

During the last four decades, manufacturers all over the world have outsourced production to countries with lower labor costs. American, European, and Japanese firms moved a lot of their production to developing Asia and Latin America, first helping countries like Malaysia and Chile, then others like China and Mexico, and then others like Vietnam and Bangladesh. Today, Chile and Malaysia are high-income economies, China and Mexico have become upper-middle, and Vietnam and Bangladesh have reached lower-middle-income. Africa’s turn was supposed to be next. But the latest round of technologies seems to be dealing Africa’s economic prospects a serious blow. […]

The real minimum wage is $0 (zero, nothing, nada) per hour

The real minimum wage is $0 (zero, nothing, nada) per hour

High minimum wages just help force a West Coast restaurant chain into bankruptcy , and it has already closed multiple locations. This means that a growing number of the chain’s workers will not be earning the legally mandated minimum wage of $15 an hour — and many earned more — but the economically realistic $0 per hour. In other words, nothing. Or for the multicultural and diverse politically correct crowd…nada. That’s Spanish for…nothing. And many only Spanish immigrant (both legal and illegal) speakers work in the food service and restaurant industries.

And that’s only a small example of the real-life […]

I, robot

I, robot

If you visit a website called willrobotstakemyjob.com, you can discover the probability of automation, at some point in the future, rendering your job either obsolete or safe. Since the Gazette is for lawyers, I can save you the bother – it is 4%.

This compares with a mere 0.8% for priests, 11% for journalists, 67% for bus drivers, and 94% for accountants and auditors, which perhaps goes a long way towards explaining why the ‘Big Four’ auditing and accountancy firms are making inroads into the legal space!

The calculation is based on a methodology developed by Oxford University researchers looking at […]

What Happened to Weirton? Part 5: Moving Forward

What Happened to Weirton? Part 5: Moving Forward

A crowd of attendees at the Festival of Nations at the Millsop Community Center in Weirton If someone had a crystal ball, they could tell you exactly what the future holds for Weirton. Sadly, there are no magic tools to make this a short story. But, with a bit of help from the gift of gab, I’ll tell you about the current trajectory of the area.

As it’s already been established, Weirton Steel offered a seemingly unbreakable backbone of employment, high wages, and community identity to the city and the nearby stretch of the Ohio Valley. The mill helped Weirton […]

Artificial Intelligence will kill jobs—and create them

Artificial Intelligence will kill jobs—and create them

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the automation of tasks once done by humans has raised fears about machines putting humans out of work and creating mass poverty. Happily, history has repeatedly proven the doomsayers wrong. While automation has certainly led to declines in entire industries (and employment in those industries), the relationship between automation and overall employment growth has been strongly positive over time.

There are sound explanations for this positive relationship. One, automation increases labour productivity and therefore raises the income levels of workers. Resulting increases in income translate into increased demand for all types of goods and services, […]

Top Four Business Process Outsourcing Trends To Expect In 2019

Top Four Business Process Outsourcing Trends To Expect In 2019

Every business is looking to cut their operating costs, and for many, that means outsourcing their non-primary functions to other companies, or even other countries. However, with the rise of certain new technologies, the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry could be at risk of losing a large portion of its market share.

As it turns out, it’s not just retailers that need to work hard to stay competitive, and BPO companies may find that 2019 could be a painful year for them if they are not keeping up with the industry’s latest trends. As the founder of an outsourced provider […]

3 million women in the UK need to transition to new jobs by 2030

3 million women in the UK need to transition to new jobs by 2030

More than 3 million women working in the UK are forecast to need to transition to new jobs in the coming decade, as digital disruption ramps up amid Britain’s rapidly automating markets. With higher paid, white collar jobs largely still dominated by men, women remain disproportionately concentrated in more repetitive administrative roles, which are particularly in line for automation.

In spite of multiple calls from political, economic and societal experts to promote the inclusion of women in business, the future of many women in the workforce is uncertain. While businesses can benefit significantly from a more diverse workforce, progress […]

You can’t turn truck drivers into coders, Andrew Yang says of job retraining

You can't turn truck drivers into coders, Andrew Yang says of job retraining

Karen Harris, Bain & Company’s Macro Trends Group managing director, discusses how the growth of automation may eliminate 20-25% of current jobs.

Businessman and 2020 presidential hopeful Andrew Yang is not so optimistic about the future of some workers in a labor force where jobs are being displaced by automation.

While the Silicon Valley insider has warned that as many as 30 percent of all U.S. jobs could be replaced within the next decade, he doesn’t think the U.S. has been focusing on an adequate solution to keep these people from falling behind.In a tweet this week, Yang suggested that job […]

You can’t turn truck drivers into coders, Andrew Yang says of job retraining

You can't turn truck drivers into coders, Andrew Yang says of job retraining

Karen Harris, Bain & Company’s Macro Trends Group managing director, discusses how the growth of automation may eliminate 20-25% of current jobs.

Businessman and 2020 presidential hopeful Andrew Yang is not so optimistic about the future of some workers in a labor force where jobs are being displaced by automation.

While the Silicon Valley insider has warned that as many as 30 percent of all U.S. jobs could be replaced within the next decade, he doesn’t think the U.S. has been focusing on an adequate solution to keep these people from falling behind.In a tweet this week, Yang suggested that job […]