While the movie lacks detailed examples of how technology advancements have affected employment, there are scenes which give us some idea about employment availability and disparity.
For example, we see that Will Salas and his mother are currently unemployed and they find seasonal work just to make ends meet. Another example of unemployment is people “time-fighting” to get more time, which often leads to death for the loser. These scenes highlight the harsh reality of this world and how people in the lowest districts have to work increasingly hard just to survive on a day-to-day basis.
The movie depicts the reason for unemployment due to the elite class purposely limiting the technological advancements to maintain the power and control they have. This is evident with the technology disparity between different time zones. For example, time-zone 1 has futuristic cars and buildings, an automated poker table and etc while time-zone 12 has deteriorating buildings and structures. The elites, who serve almost as a governing body, control over time and technology has led to the extreme polarity between the unemployment and development rate between the different time zones. Consequently, the elites have used time to unethically govern the time zones which is evident when applied to theories such as Kantianism and Act Utilitarianism. With Kantianism it states that it is not ethical because when this case is applied universally - and any one person can use time to control and discriminate against others -it is not morally sound. Additionally, people in lower time zones are being used as means to an end by the elites giving more reason to why it is not ethical via Kantianism. For act utilitarianism, where the pros and cons are evaluated, it is still unethical as the con would be if a certain group controlled other's lives while the pro would be that resources were equally distributed. Consequently, as the cons outweigh the pros, it remains unethical.
Ideally, with the advancements in technology, a government should create policies which undertake the serious unemployment issues that occur. These policies can include investing in the public infrastructure, direct job creation and unemployment wages.[1]
Accordingly, in the movie, the governing body - the elites - should ideally invest in some of these policies in order to fight against the disparity in employment and development between the different sectors.
[1] - Cyert, R. M., & Mowery, D. C. (1987). Technology and Employment. NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/1004.html