Tag: Technology

Four megatrends and the future of work

Four megatrends and the future of work

Recent research by ETUI warns that many of these new jobs are in the ‘gig’ economy of insecure, precarious work in new service industries. [ Nikolay Sirota/Shutterstock ]

What will workplaces be like in the future? Will I still have a job that I am trained to do, that doesn’t bore or cripple me? When will I retire, and what sort of world will I be leaving for my children? These sorts of questions are preoccupying Europeans more and more. While ‘bad news’ stories about war and crime have always hogged the headlines, people are increasingly taking note of studies […]

Robots Run the Farm, but You Can Eat Only So Much

Robots Run the Farm, but You Can Eat Only So Much

Will robots cause the factory to go the way of the farm? Many economists seem to think so. “Rising levels of productivity benefit manufacturing,” declares a recent paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, “but also naturally lead to declining employment—much as the agricultural sector has experienced declining employment and rising output in the twentieth century.” Since the end of World War II, technology has caused agriculture’s share of U.S. employment to drop from nearly 10% to just 1%.

This analysis misses a point that becomes obvious once you think about it: One can eat only so much. […]

People analytics will give employees the upper hand in the new job market

People analytics will give employees the upper hand in the new job market

Over the next two decades, millions of workers will be required to change their career focus on average nearly every five years, says research conducted by McKinsey[1]. Some jobs will disappear entirely due to automation and AI. Others will shift profoundly and require wholesale adaptation.

Instead of reducing opportunities, this actually opens up new possibilities for employees, believes Chris Butt, CEO of predictive people analytics company Cognisess. “Talent will have the upper hand as workers with highly desirable and transferable skills will be able to follow opportunities which align with their life and career aspirations. In turn, less competitive companies […]

Robots? Training? Factories Tackle the Productivity Puzzle

Robots? Training? Factories Tackle the Productivity Puzzle

HICKSVILLE, Ohio — For Anthony Nighswander, rock-bottom unemployment is both a headache and an opportunity. For businesses and workers, it could be the key to reversing one of the country’s most vexing economic problems: slow productivity growth.

Mr. Nighswander is president of APT Manufacturing Solutions, which builds and installs robotic equipment to help other manufacturers automate their assembly lines. Lately, business has been booming: With the unemployment rate now below 4 percent, he says he gets calls every day from companies looking for robots to help ease their labor crunch.

The problem is that Mr. Nighswander faces a hiring challenge in […]

At the Ocado warehouse I Robot meets the grocery cart

At the Ocado warehouse I Robot meets the grocery cart

Warehousing around the globe is undergoing a dramatic change with the widespread introduction of automation. But as the Ocado facilities illustrate, warehouse automation is much more than conveyor belts and racks.

By Matt Miller, AJOT

Inside a warehouse some 70 miles west of London, hundreds of robots dash along an aluminum grid. They grab bins positioned underneath the metal framework, then scurry to pick stations where either humans or picking robots armed with computer vision take the goods from the bins to fill grocery orders.This operation is the domain of Ocado, the British online grocer. In its Andover facility, Ocado […]

Short of Workers, Fast-Food Restaurants Turn to Robots

Short of Workers, Fast-Food Restaurants Turn to Robots

Now Hiring

Job openings in hospitality, including restaurants, have increased since 2010 and account for more available positions than retail or manufacturing firms.

Note: Seasonally adjusted dataSource: Labor DepartmentExperts have warned for years that robots will replace humans in restaurants. Instead, a twist on that prediction is unfolding. Amid the lowest unemployment in years , fast-food restaurants are turning to machines—not to get rid of workers, but because they can’t find enough.The hospitality industry had 844,000 unfilled positions in April, a record high, according to the Labor Department. That accounts for about one out of every eight jobs available […]

First new all-electric mine dumps diesel; cuts costs, pollution

A worker walks underground at Goldcorp Inc’s Borden all-electric gold mine near Chapleau, Ontario, Canada, June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Watt By Susan Taylor and Barbara Lewis

CHAPLEAU, Ontario/LONDON (Reuters) – Hundreds of feet below thick boreal forest blanketing the Canadian Shield, a squad of near-silent, battery-powered machines are tunneling toward gold in a multimillion-dollar mining experiment to ditch diesel.

Goldcorp Inc is building the world’s first new all-electric mine, a high-stakes gambit to replace noisy, fume-belching equipment being closely watched by a diesel-dependent industry.A rough-hewn tunnel, some 800 feet underground, seems an incongruous setting for revolutionary technology, but front-line workers call […]

The future world of work is changing

The future world of work is changing

‘How can the learners and students of today ensure that they are prepared for future work roles that can’t yet even be clearly defined?’ asks the writer (John McCann) For most people, the year 2028 seems like the very distant future. But when you consider that 18 years have already passed since the prospect of a new millennium had the world in a panic over what would happen to their computers and data, the next 10 years are sure to fly by at a similarly eye-watering pace.

Although the number of days a year is never going to change, the […]

Voice – The Interface Between Supply Chain Tech and Humans

Voice – The Interface Between Supply Chain Tech and Humans

It’s the era of the new consumer.

We must adapt supply chains rapidly to meet customer expectations. Trends like reverse logistics, same-day-delivery and mobility result in new business models, stressed logistics systems and deconsolidating networks. We’re also in the midst of a shrinking talent pool. Competing with rising wages and attractive employment alternatives for this generation is pivotal in landing the top talent.

How do we handle this? By evolving our operations with the tools and technologies of the automated and connected supply chain of the future. This means meeting the demands of the next-generation consumer and the tech-savvy worker with […]

Fear Not, Truckers: Robot Replacements Are Decades Away

Fear Not, Truckers: Robot Replacements Are Decades Away

The truck drivers who stand to lose their jobs to automated-driving technology? Many of them haven’t been born yet.

For all of today’s fretting over the potential for massive unemployment associated with the deployment of self-driving vehicles, a report issued last week by a transportation-policy think tank says the first ripples from automation won’t reach the labor market until the mid-2030s. Widespread impact won’t occur for more than a quarter of a century.

Even then, the report, published by Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), suggests job impacts will be minimal rather than a catalyst for broad economic turmoil. The SAFE think […]