The Argus-Leader newspaper of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has been running a series of articles this week titled Robot Week stories: How technology is changing the workforce. It covers some common topics like fast food jobs and medicine while considering the common skepticism that a jobs revolution is not happening.
One piece is an interview with Martin Ford, the author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, who opined that South Dakota is somewhat atypical but still faces automation performing more jobs.
Agricultural technology is important in South Dakota. Farmers appreciate milking automation that frees them from having to tend to the cows every 12 hours. Plus the increased efficiency is remarkable: a state Agriculture Secretary said his father once employed 45 people and now the farm is bigger with more stock and operates with eight workers because of technology.
The article on publishing technology struck home because I worked in the field for some years while it was changing from paper layout to pages produced entirely on machines. What’s eye-catching here is how the newspaper workforce shrunk from 310 workers to 140 over a period of years, like many other businesses where greater efficiency brought by technology has meant that fewer people were needed to do the work.
It’s another reminder that America shouldn’t continue importing low-skilled foreigners via immigration. Oxford researchers have estimated that nearly half of US jobs are susceptible to automation by 2033, and all evidence indicates that smart machines are creating substantial job loss now and the trend is partially responsible for the jobless recovery.
Computer software journalists are coming after my job, By Steve Young, Argus-Leader, August 13, 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment