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Number of Workers in Jobs That Can Be Automated Falls (ft.com)
Employment has fallen in jobs that can be easily automated and risen in those which are trickier for robots, damping hopes that higher minimum wages could unleash a wave of investment in automation. From a report: Statistics from the Office for National Statistics published on Monday showed that in 2011 about 8.1 per cent of workers were in jobs with a "high" risk of automation, but by 2017 that had fallen to 7.4 per cent. [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source and original study.] The ONS report highlighted that fewer workers remain in areas that can be easily automated, such as dry cleaning and laundry jobs, which fell by 28 per cent between 2011 and 2017, and retail cashier work, which fell by 25.3 per cent over the same period.
Since the financial crisis the UK has enjoyed rapid growth in employment combined with one of the lowest rates of investment spending of any large rich country. Many economists have suggested that hiring cheap labour instead of investment in new techniques is behind the country's weak rate of productivity growth. Policymakers had hoped that increasing the minimum wage would spur companies to replace low-paid jobs with machines, in turn boosting growth in productivity. [...] But the ONS analysis suggests the increase in employment over the past decade has not come from jobs that could easily be done by machines. Instead, since 2011 the UK lost jobs with a high or medium risk of automation, like shelf fillers, but gained them in areas with a low risk, such as physiotherapy.
Since the financial crisis the UK has enjoyed rapid growth in employment combined with one of the lowest rates of investment spending of any large rich country. Many economists have suggested that hiring cheap labour instead of investment in new techniques is behind the country's weak rate of productivity growth. Policymakers had hoped that increasing the minimum wage would spur companies to replace low-paid jobs with machines, in turn boosting growth in productivity. [...] But the ONS analysis suggests the increase in employment over the past decade has not come from jobs that could easily be done by machines. Instead, since 2011 the UK lost jobs with a high or medium risk of automation, like shelf fillers, but gained them in areas with a low risk, such as physiotherapy.
Sounds like a challenge to me.
Those investigations will continue apace, as will the SDNY and other Federal investigations into, among other things, emoluments, conspiracy, fraud, charity fraud, campaign finance fraud, self-dealing with government monies, obstruction of justice ongoing, lies his son and daughter told to Congress, among a myriad of other unknown charges that will be coming to light over the next year to two years.
Well, no collusion. Your list is at least getting shorter. That's progress I suppose.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Now they kill workers in automated falls?
This makes me think of a robot pushing a human worker off a cliff.
Have you read my blog lately?
Yes, jobs that can be automated will be replaced by automation. There is a reason why we no longer have a lot of jobs (outside historical reenactment, or custom work) like Type Setters, Black Smiths, Weavers...
Being that companies can now automate a lot of their entry level jobs, this means over time a companies competitive advantage would be lessen (as all the machines will make the products the same way and at the same quality) That means they will need to put resources into Support, and Client Relations, and general people skills. So the new entry level worker will be more support reps, and they will need to be paid higher prices because there will be more competition to get the better ones.
Where today I may have lousy support but my product is Top Quality, or it is normal quality but I sell it for cheap, All the products will be costing the same to produce with automation, so I will need to find a way to differentiate myself. If I have better support then people will like me more then the other competitor. Who may be cheaper because their support sucks.
However right now in America, Automation isn't the problem, but the lack of investment in companies that produce goods and services. Other then selling stocks to the common man to help the company to invest into more people and more machines. The stocks are mostly shared in high amounts with other wealthy people who only care for the short term gain. The income they make from these stocks they put into buying back their own stocks to raise the prices to sell later. This is a bastardization on capitalism, where businessmen found a loophole in the system, and are abusing it.
I don't see socialism as an answer, but right now our capitalism system has some major problems.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Cannot read the FT article.
Is the reduction of the number of employees in these jobs due to automation? If not, why are their numbers dropping?
It takes 15% as much human labor to load and unload canned goods when using wooden shipping pallets versus when just stacking them directly on the truck.
Pneumatic construction tools.
The hot-blast furnace (86,000 hours of labor became 200 hours of labor).
Intensive agriculture.
Computers.
Could you imagine digging out a basement with only hand shovels?
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I can wait to see what the unemployment rate is going to be in the coming years when, not if, the following happen:
- Truckers are replaced by self driving semis
- Retail and grocery start adopting the Amazon model of the cashierless stores
- Retailers start to use the Amazon robotic stocking model
Millions put out of work then told they need to retrain to work the couple thousand of higher tech jobs needed to maintain this new system.
There are so many jobs available that unemployment stands almost at 0% and nearly all first world countries have to rely on foreign workers because their own work force is too small for their economies. This despite decades of alarmism over false predictions of automation destroying all jobs..
Yet, the Chicken Littles of the Left insist we need UBI. In truth, it's only because they are LAZY and totally self-serving. These parasites don't deserve a dime.
Employment has fallen in jobs that can be easily automated and risen in those which are trickier for robots, damping hopes that higher minimum wages could unleash a wave of investment in automation.
It's been this way since the start of the industrial revolution and even before. Some jobs get automated by new technology and those people have to find or create new jobs. As a species we're quite good at that. Generally the automation enables jobs that didn't exist previously. If you need evidence look at the very device you are using to read these very words. Smartphones are a multi-billion dollar business that didn't even exist 20 years ago. The web didn't even exist 30 years ago yet you'd be hard pressed to argue it hasn't been a net creator of jobs and prosperity. (note I didn't say a uniform creator of prosperity) That's not to say there aren't some bumps and bruises along the way for some people but in the end our society ends up better off pretty much every time.
There is this fear that somehow this time it will be different. That somehow devices have finally gotten clever enough to replace people permanently with nothing left for people to do. Problem with that idea is that it presumes there is a finite amount of economically useful work which is an idea that has never been true in the history of man. It also presumes that we have no control over automation politically, economically, or physically which also isn't true. One of our defining traits is that we are tool makers. Our tools enable us to do more than we could do without them. Instead of just making a product we use machines to help us make it so we can spend more time selling it or improving it or funding it.
Number of Workers in Jobs That Can Be Automated Falls
This headline is from 1887.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
If their job gets automated... they no longer work there.
Here, lemme rephrase that a little: "Number of remaining workers in jobs that can be automated falls."
Policymakers had hoped that increasing the minimum wage would spur companies to replace low-paid jobs with machines, in turn boosting growth in productivity.
And suddenly you have to wonder about all the calls and campaigns for a $15 minimum wage here in the US and if they weren't after the opposite of what was claimed.
Aggressively reduce the costs of people who are raising smart, healthy children and push the burdens on everyone else, particularly voluntarily childless people. The future belongs to those who show up for it, and almost every issue facing our world is telling us that we need to bring our genetic, cultural and technological a game to bear on it.
...Because there will be no jobs left.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Keep it up. Being completely disconnected from reality can only be good for your life. There are no risks.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
How does "client support" help anyone in North America. Usually when I call a support desk it is clear the person isn't local.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
We really need to start discerning between quality jobs that will pay a living wage and crap jobs. I think most people today are working but there is a huge problem finding jobs that are full time, pay well, and not based on contract. The gig economy is one way where people who used to have normal jobs are working in a very temporary fashion for small money. Gig workers should not even be counted as employed. Seems to be a lot of temporary work out there but nothing stable.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
And many of those old jobs that used to be automated also resulted in signficant problems in society, with protests and the rise of the workers movement in general. The word "sabotage" comes from this. It also caused a major migration from rural areas into metropolitan areas. There's no reason to think that continued automation will happen without the corresponding societal problems.
The stocks are mostly shared in high amounts with other wealthy people who only care for the short term gain.
Wrong and wrong. Most stocks are "owned" by middle class workers in the form of pension plans and IRAs. And wealthy people generally don't buy/sell stock very often; they buy and hold for years, sometimes generations.
and every time he finds something they start moving to outsource him. The only reason the last job he had lasted as long as it did is they first tried to automate, that didn't work, so they outsourced.
And for the record, while the automation didn't work out the door it would have eventually, but it was cheaper to outsource now than wait. The offshore guys who took his last job are all on borrowed time.
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Mueller found some evidence of collusion
Where's your evidence of this evidence?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Employment has fallen in jobs that can be easily automated and risen in those which are trickier for robots, damping hopes that higher minimum wages could unleash a wave of investment in automation.
Amongst psychopaths perhaps, but not normal people.
"Geeze, I was really hoping that these new higher minimum wages would be the final impetus to once and for all make sure those jobs don't exist, because you know, I just can't stand paying poor people money.
Drats. Maybe next year we'll be able to keep ALL the money for ourselves, and not have any pesky employees."
Seriously, who but I psychopath has such hopes dashed?
Resistance is futile.
Assuming they're made to the same design & spec, with the same materials, using the same machines and in the same locations.
Not impossible but very improbable.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
there was decades of unemployment and social strife following the industrial revolution. Long before it was a generic insult Luddites formed their group for a reason. We're pretty terrible at responding to rapid change. Hell, we went through two meat grinders with the automation of warfare and bombed large swaths of the world to the stone age before we backed off a little. And we mostly backed off because the major industrialized nations have nukes.
You mentioned we'll have to find or make new jobs, but what jobs? How will we pay for them when we're unemployed? When the outsourcing started in the late 90s I was told we'd all pivot to biotech. But the mass number of jobs never materialized. When self-driving cars and automatic, no scan checkouts put 2 million folks out of work what do we do with them?
So far the answers I've heard are:
1. Biotech... never materialized.
2. "Learn 2 Code", aka "Go back to school in your 40s for an advanced degree you couldn't hack in your 20s".
3. A list of service sector jobs nobody will be able to afford to pay for when their jobs go poof.
4. "It'll be so high tech you can't imagine it!", which is just kicking the can down the road.
The only real, substantive answers I've heard so far come from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocassio-Cortez. Both of who want higher minimum wages (so the remaining workers can afford services from the newly unemployed), a large scale federal jobs program ("Green New Deal"), single payer healthcare (which might actually result in some new biotech jobs) and massive infrastructure spending (again, New Deal). Basically, they're gonna tax the robots (or robot owners if you prefer) to pay for public works to employ everyone. Maybe it's a bad solution, but it's the only concrete answer I've heard.
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In Robot Maintence!
This summary is weird. It's like they don't realize there are fewer people employed in automatable jobs because those jobs are now becoming automated.
Capitalism is all about seeking short and mid term profit than thinking about very long future.
In fact, most human technology advancement come from collective knowledge and sharing. It will take Arabs a few century if paper making not "leak" from the Chinese. Gutenberg printing will push back for a few hundred or a thousands year, if the "European" did not learn the paper making from Arab. Imagine if the Internet are not working the same way but monopolised by a few corporation, then AOL will still making ten billions of profit with little advancement in broadband, search technology, web engine, etc. No corporation are able to fund optical fibers research that took more than 30 years transform into something business viable. It is always huge government grant behind it for all the futuristic technology.
For corporation, maintain the monopoly stance and play rent seeking is way easier to maintain profit growth than invest in R&D, so some companies even go into extend to form syndicates. And to form syndicate, they need republication in place to "deregulate". It seems China government simply learn the US past, while playing the neoliberalism economy game, China now is the world 2nd largest countries that pouring funds into R&D. Once USA federal R&D funds falls behind China, it will no take long that China technology will surpass US and cause the whole spy & espionage game go the other way.
Will USA government change the stance and start pouring fund into education and retrain part of population that "unfit for current job" into R&D field than relies on imported trained engineer from other country? I don't think so.
This seems highly unlikely.
I know not all wealth is stock, but a lot of it is. The top 10% of the population hold 76% of the wealth.
The skew away from stock for the richest would have to be extreme for the middle class to hold 50% of the stock.
The 50th=90th percentile hold 23% of the wealth, so they'd have to be holding 3x as much in stock relative to the top 10% to be holding 50% of the stock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
News for you.. Google is automating call centers. The simple fact is that the days of relatively easy job substitution are over. Entire swathes of industries from transportation to retail, and also lower end services will be transformed, like farming was, and it is not clear that this time around the unemployed will be able to find other suitable productive work with their skill levels.
The gap between labor and capital will continue to widen. It has been a false alarm in the past, but the game really is changing now.
Technology comes in waves of vast improvements. The notion that a job is not so easy to automate can vanish in a few months when breakthrough X takes place. The greatest buffer to rapid change is financial as the cost of change in investments creates some pain and anxiety. How many machine shops would be so much better off buying a $500,000 five axis milling machine that cuts using water with precise results? The catch is that so far smaller shops just can't buy the good stuff.
"Biotech" is a buzzwordy way to say healthcare. Most of the jobs were going to be lab jobs. Drawing blood and running tests that aren't ready to be automated. Easy stuff with some training and decent, $15-$20/hr work. Plus all the ancillary jobs. Single Payer Healthcare means more people seeking care, especially preventative care where those tests are done. That means more jobs.
I'd love to see the work week dropped, but good luck getting that past American puritanicalism....
And no, we're not going to drain the rich dry. But we are going to bust the ultra-wealthy them down a peg or two. Right now they're not so much men and women as they are God-Kings.
And the New Deal didn't ramp up the debt, wars did. Lots and lots of wars did. We put $6 trillion on the "National Credit Card" for Iraq alone (after interest, everybody always forgets about the interest).
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Please stop posting garbage to slashdot. It makes us sad.
Automation will change the job market, putting a number on exactly which jobs will go is not tethered to reality. There are too many unknowns to make any statements like this. Anyone that does is an idiot. Anyone that shares said idiotic views is a problem.