Tag: Services

Matt Nolan presents his Top 10 links on the economics of automation

Matt Nolan presents his Top 10 links on the economics of automation

Today’s Top 10 is a guest post from Matt Nolan, an economist at Infometrics , and an author at the blog site TVHE .

As always, we welcome your additions in the comment stream below or via email to david.chaston@interest.co.nz.

And if you’re interested in contributing the occasional Top 10 yourself, contact gareth.vaughan@interest.co.nz.Before writing this I had a search of interest.co.nz for “automation”. I found the following articles as the first 5 links: A top ten by Lena Hesselgrave , an article by Nigel Pinkerton (a colleague of mine), an article from NZIER , and two Top Tens from myself. Finally, […]

Automation and the prospects of economic development

Automation and the prospects of economic development

By Joselito T. Sescon

Technological anxiety has been with us since the first modern industries appeared. The angst toward new technologies is mainly about the fear of widespread substitution and displacement of human labor by machines. Historical experiences in early industrialization have shown that new technologies used in production initially had disruptive effects to labor and existing production assets. However, new technologies also ushered in the birth of new industries, created new jobs, becoming the source of productivity, economic growth and development.

Automation, like most new labor-saving technologies, has an effect of raising the comparative advantage and value of jobs that […]

Oilfield automation may slow job growth — but it doesn’t have to

Oilfield automation may slow job growth — but it doesn't have to

More competitive companies could expand faster and hire more people.

Last week, I wrote about the race to create a digital platform to help drillers deploy and track trucks and other equipment to service their wells in the most efficient possible way, with shorter trips and seamless billing — an Uber for the oilfield, if you will.

Efficiency, of course, means making things cost less. Cost comes in two varieties: Capital and labor. So which one is being cut?In the case of software programs for running oilfield operations, the answer is theoretically both. Service providers will need fewer trucks […]

Robots and tax: paying the freight

Robots and tax: paying the freight

Adrian Turner: It is time for a serious national conversation about automation … Australia does not need a robot tax – but it should take automation and the erosion of traditional jobs a whole lot more seriously.

CSIRO’s Data61 chief executive Adrian Turner has weighed into the discussion about whether companies replacing human workers with robots should be forced to pay a tax for the privilege, arguing that it is neither sensible nor feasible.

It’s a position at odds with that of Microsoft founder and technology advisor Bill Gates, who in a recent interview with the online site Quartz, said that […]

Trade, Automation, Cheap Wages Abroad Conspire to Alter U.S. Economic Landscape

Trade, Automation, Cheap Wages Abroad Conspire to Alter U.S. Economic Landscape

President Trump has blamed countries such as China and Mexico for the erosion of U.S. manufacturing jobs, but the industry has been steadily declining for decades. Photo: Tama66 / Pixabay

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump struck a protectionist, populist tone that appealed to Rust Belt blue-collar workers but instilled fear among multinational companies, foreign governments and free trade advocates. Those fears were apparently well founded.

Since assuming office, Trump has wasted no time railing against the perils of globalization. He’s threatened to slap punitive tariffs on key economic partners such as Mexico and China, named and shamed companies that outsource […]

Nowhere to Go: Automation, Then and Now

Nowhere to Go: Automation, Then and Now

Part One

It is in this serious light that we have to look at the question of the growing army of the unemployed. We have to stop looking for solutions in pump-priming, featherbedding, public works, war contracts, and all the other gimmicks that are always being proposed by labor leaders and well-meaning liberals.

– James Boggs, The American Revolution In 1963, James Boggs, a black autoworker employed for over two decades at a Chrysler plant in Detroit, published a short book focused on the nefarious effects of automation on class struggle in the United States. The story told in The American […]

The New Jobs Mantra: It’s Time To Be Selfish, Really Selfish

The New Jobs Mantra: It’s Time To Be Selfish, Really Selfish

Don’t just ask where are the jobs, but ask whether you are ready for the jobs that are available.

The future belongs to the independent and the brave, not the passive.

The message from the IT industry to employees who may be rendered redundant in a changing work environment is: “go, look after your interests by upskilling or right-skilling”.Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president of the software services industry lobby Nasscom, is quoted by Business Standard as saying this: “An aspect of diversity in the industry is going to be self-learning. It is no more going to be like Infosys will take you […]

Innovation key to India surviving next industrial revolution

It is not often that the world finds itself at the cusp of a revolution, and an industrial one is even more uncommon. India missed the bus on the first major industrial revolution that was brought about in 18th century Britain, on account of being on the wrong side of colonial history. No other phase of innovation has transformed the industrial landscape to a similar extent, except the digital revolution in the latter half of the 20th century.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, we are about to witness the next industrial revolution, which has the potential to change the way we live, […]

More manufacturing, fewer jobs. Is there a solution?

More manufacturing, fewer jobs. Is there a solution?

Technology and automation have impacted a range of industries, including printing. Manufacturing makes more products than ever before, but not the jobs that once went with them. How can struggling economies resurrect their rust belt regions when factories employ more machines than people?

In a cavernous building on the outskirts of Sydney’s CBD, a lone worker tends to a massive printing machine churning out 70,000 magazines an hour.

Not so long ago, it would have taken six workers to do the job, but advances in technology and automation mean printers at Blue Star Web are able to produce more with less […]

Will automation take away all our jobs? | David Autor

Will automation take away all our jobs? | David Autor

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Report Subtitle Errors Here’s a startling fact:
in the 45 years since the introduction of the automated teller machine,
those vending machines that dispense cash, the number of human bank tellers employed in the United States has roughly doubled, from about a quarter of a million to a half a million. A quarter of a million in 1970 to about a half a million today, with 100,000 added since the year 2000. These facts, revealed in a recent book by Boston University economist James Bessen, […]