Tag: Technology

Lack of Demand Is the Economy’s Problem, Not Automation

Dean Baker is an economist and the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research . He is on Twitter .

While we hear endless tales of driverless cars and robots displacing human workers, in the real world we are seeing the exact opposite. The last decade has been a period of extraordinarily low productivity growth. Productivity growth has averaged less than 1.1 percent annually from 2006 to 2016. This compares to almost 3.0 percent in the decade from 1995 to 2005 and also in the quarter century boom from 1947 to 1973. If we generated more demand through […]

Will a Robot Take My Job?

Will a Robot Take My Job?

Automation is replacing low-skilled jobs but creating higher-skilled — and higher-paying — opportunities

United Parcel Service has 155 miles of conveyor belts at its Worldport hub in Louisville. If you believe the hype, a robot might one day steal your job. That’s according to some of the mythology perpetuated by futurists about the coming automation boom.

For example, in October 2015 “60 Minutes” ran a piece on a driverless Mercedes that responded to eye movements and gestures. If you carry this technology to its logical conclusion, could we one day have driverless freight trucks that in one fell swoop eliminate […]

Invest in Technology With Social Benefits

Arun Sundararajan is a professor of business at New York University, and the author of " The Sharing Economy : The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism." He is on Twitter , @digitalarun.

Fears of widespread automation and an imminent “ world without work ” have risen as advances in digital technology herald the emergence of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence. A distinct air of technological determinism – that the technology by itself dictates its broader economic and societal impacts – surrounds these dire predictions , while ignoring the political and organizational factors that often shape the nature […]

The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, And Status In The Twenty-first Century

The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, And Status In The Twenty-first Century

Ryan Avent Ryan Avent, thank you very much for joining us today. You’ve got a new book out entitled ‘ The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-first Century ’, and it addresses one of the hottest topics around at the moment – the digital revolution, and what it means for the future of work.

So, what do you think? What does it mean?

Well, I think it means big change. I think the starting point of the book is that the digital revolution actually is probably going to be as transformative as the industrial […]

Will new technologies destroy jobs?

Will new technologies destroy jobs?

At TM Forum Live! Asia (December 7-8, Singapore), Andrew Milroy, SVP ICT Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan, will take part in a panel on the future of digital services and the Internet of Everything across APAC . Here, he looks at the impact of automation on employment.

There has been much discussion recently around the impact of automation on employment, particularly the use of robotics. Advances in machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are steadily eliminating routine and repetitive types of jobs. Some studies state that half of manufacturing jobs will be […]

3 reasons why a robot will take your job… and why that’s a good thing

3 reasons why a robot will take your job… and why that’s a good thing

We’ve all seen the headlines about robots coming to take our jobs, decimating the employment landscape for humans, and leaving a barren wasteland of redundancy in their wake.

Well, it’s all true. Let’s start by taking a look at why your job is likely to become automated, and then explain why this is not a bad thing.

Machines are generally much quicker at performing tasks than humans, especially the more repetitive the task is. Just last week we featured a story about a bricklaying robot that can build houses 16 times faster than human builders. Importantly, machines don’t need to take […]

Automated Inequality

Automated Inequality

Humans have been here before—at least three times before, in fact. At first, it was steam and water power; then came electricity and mass production; and then IT and computerization. Each time, Joseph Schumpeter’s “gale of creative destruction” blustered as rapid advances in technology destroyed some jobs, paved the way for new lines of work, and ultimately provided enhanced productivity and lifestyles for the majority. Researchers predict that over the next decade or so, emerging technological breakthroughs will once again fundamentally alter jobs and manufacturing processes around the world—but this time, the consequences could be drastically different.

There is little […]

The Automation Revolution

The Automation Revolution

Automation is increasingly being questioned as anti-job with chatbots, robots etc., usurping human employment across sectors. Or it might well trigger the rise of ‘knowledge’ workers. The new industrial revolution is on the anvil. The Machine Age

The way relationship between man and machine is evolving today has never happened historically. The robots from the science fiction movies are turning reality. Imminent is the fact that robots will impact millions of jobs in multiple sectors particularly the blue-collar ones. Instances like Taiwan-based contract manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group replacing around 60,000 factory workers with robots in May this year […]

Knowledge more crucial than skills in future economy

Knowledge more crucial than skills in future economy

What can the future hold for students seeking majors in a job market moving from part-time employment to emergent automation?

In the United States, neither political party has offered any significant frameworks for the coming challenges of automation displacing workers as economic inequality becomes unsustainable. While one party offers bread-crumb handouts such as education reform and more training for the American workforce, the other peddles the cliché that government is the problem, not the solution, offering fantasy schemes of fewer regulations, a new gig economy and a trickle-down economy by reducing taxes for the mega-wealthy.

A recent article in the […]

Is a Robot After Your Job?

Is a Robot After Your Job?

With the economy the way it is, most manufacturing workers are afraid that their company will move out of the country, or that someone who will work for less will get their job. Now, there is another fear—is a robot after your job? In some factories, robots already outnumber the human workers. The general factory workforce is going through radical changes with more robots being employed at a vigorous pace. How will this affect your job? An Oxford study reports that 47% of all jobs will be taken over by a robot within the next twenty years.

Robotic technology is […]