Tag: Services

The most important job in the world is one no one wants anymore

This story is part of What Happens Next , our complete guide to understanding the future. Read more predictions about the Future of Aging .

A lot of caregiving policy feels like it was written in the 1950s—because it was.

Our system of caregiving was built for a time when the economy functioned on women’s unpaid labor. In the 1960s, when Medicare was created , just over one third of women participated in the workforce. As most women were full-time homemakers who stayed home to cook, clean, and care for the children and grandparents, the social safety net didn’t need […]

Coping with FIRe

Coping with FIRe

I had the privilege to listen to Dr. Aniceto Orbeta of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), the government think tank, when he made a presentation on Labor and Global Development before the People Management Association of the Philippines.

Now, the FIRe in the title of this column doesn’t refer to firing laborers but rather the shorthand for what Dr. Orbeta in his presentation calls the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe). According to Dr. Orbeta, the First Revolution was about steam, water, and mechanical production equipment, starting about 1784. The Second Revolution was about division of labor, electricity, mass production, […]

How Upskilling Can Pave the Way for Blue-Collar Workers’ Employment in the Future

How Upskilling Can Pave the Way for Blue-Collar Workers' Employment in the Future

To be successful in the age of automation, blue-collar workers need upskilling and training to survive in the market hastily opting for robots over humans With artificial intelligence (AI) and automation displacing several human jobs, many blue-collar workers will require special skills to survive in the future. Unlike white collar workers, blue collar workers spend significant amount of time in physical activities. Whereas, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk. To be successful at their jobs in the age of automation, blue-collar workers may also need upskilling […]

Taxing robots is a bad idea

Taxing robots is a bad idea

Around 5.7 million jobs in SA will be at risk due to automation. As more jobs become automated globally, prospects of unemployment have sparked worldwide debate on whether governments should impose a tax on robots that are taking over human jobs.

This is not a good idea, as it will not counteract the negative effects of automation, said Professor Rasigan Maharajh, nodal head of the Department of Science and Technology and chief director of the National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy. He was speaking at the Global Work Tech Scenarios 2050 conference, […]

Bring On the Robots: Why Automation Is Good

Bring On the Robots: Why Automation Is Good

The size of the global automation market is forecast to reach $200 billion by 2020. 1 As more industries deploy machines and computers, the labor market is being transformed.

This is one reason why many of us worry that machines will take over our work, leaving us unemployed. But automation has been happening for centuries — more specifically, since the Industrial Revolution. Ever since, some have predicted that automation would cause massive unemployment and make humans obsolete. And today, even the CEOs of tech companies like Facebook 2 and Microsoft 3 make similar claims — adding that, this time, the […]

How AI automation could boost employment: The role of demand

In previous automation revolutions, we’ve seen people move from one pillar of industry to another. We’ve seen people move from agriculture to manufacturing and from manufacturing to services. Every time this has happened the basic skill-set has increased dramatically. Where do people move to when automation starts making deep inroads into services? More importantly, what kind of skill-sets will people need to be valuable in the future and are those skill-sets even plausible for the majority of people?

A former PM in Australia defined the following pillars to our economy: manufacturing, agriculture, services, education, health, transport and commodities.

Automation has made […]

AI won’t destroy jobs it will transform them

AI won’t destroy jobs it will transform them

The chorus of voices claiming that AI won’t destroy jobs is getting louder There seems to be two sides to the ‘robots won’t take jobs’ argument. One side suggests that robots and other automation tools will enable workers to focus more on the aspects of their job that requires more human skills — such as the ability to engage with customers. The other side argues that AI, robotics process automation and robotics will create new jobs. When Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne, from Oxford University, published their infamous Future of Employment report , they disturbed one very large […]

Automation nation

Automation nation

Drawing by Jim Barber for the Highland Community News I walked into the McDonald’s on Base Line a few days ago, a rare occasion for me. Not that I disdain fast food, although I went for 14 months without it before coming out of retirement to work for the Century Group.

It’s that I always do the drive-thru. However, the driver’s side electric window is busted and I’ve been too busy — or lazy or cheap — to fix it.

So I walk in and see machines where you can punch a few buttons to order your food. It was 6 […]

Estimates of job loss due to automation miss one big factor

Predicting the scale of AI-induced job losses has become a cottage industry for economists and consulting firms the world over. Depending on which model one uses, estimates range from terrifying to totally not a problem.

Since 2013, the most cited predictions include a study from Oxford University that predicted 47% of US jobs could be automated within the next decade or two; an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report that suggested just 9% of jobs in the United States were at high risk of automation; PwC research that found 38% of jobs in the United States were at […]

Half of Aussies not convinced automation is good

Half of Aussies not convinced automation is good

The research, conducted by Nature on behalf of SEEK, found that less than half of Australians view automation and artificial intelligence (AI) as being “probably a good thing” (48 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively).

Of those that do, the main benefits were identified as increased efficiencies (47 per cent), less repetitiveness (46 per cent) and freeing up people’s time (35 per cent).

Surprisingly, it was not just younger adults who are more receptive to these technologies and more positive about their impacts: Baby Boomers (those aged 55 to 64 years), combined with Generation Z (those aged 18 to 24) […]