Almost half the jobs Americans thought were safe will soon be done by robots
Robots Destroy Jobs
Machines on the March
Almost Half the Jobs Americans Thought Were Safe Will Soon Be Done by Robots
Jobs
Robots
Honda News
A new wave of technological development means that even positions that we once saw as immune to computerization are now under threat.
The Conversation Read the entire article
"Computers have been an important part of many industries for decades already and have replaced humans in many jobs. But a new wave of technological development means that even positions that we once saw as immune to computerization are now under threat.
“How Technology Wrecks the Middle Class ,” a recent New York Times Column by David Autor and David Dorn, captures an observation made by several commentators: technology has turned on labor.
In the modern world of work, low-income service jobs have expanded sharply at the expense of middle-income manufacturing and production jobs. There are many more security guards and pharmacy aides while the rate of growth has slowed in professions such as chemical plant operators and fabric pattern makers. Meanwhile, computers have increased the productivity of high-income workers, such as professional managers, engineers and consultants.
The result has been a polarized labor market with surging wage inequality. Research has shown that this polarization between “lousy” and “lovely” jobs is happening in Britain as well as in the US, implying that there has been a hollowing-out of the middle class.
The threat of computerization has historically been largely confined to routine manufacturing tasks involving explicit rule-based activities such as part construction and assembly. But a look at 700 occupation types in the US suggests that 47% are at risk from a threat that once only loomed for a small proportion of workers."