The Impact Of Automation

Introduction Automation has played a large role in the ever changing labor market with new industries gaining momentum and old industries becoming obsolete. With the increasing amount of research and improvements in automation, feelings of anxiety and disdain towards automation have become normal for workers. Automation will impact the job market with a reduction in lower wage jobs, meaning a loss in many jobs in labor intensive industries. Even though jobs are lost due to convenience and superior efficiency that machines offer, however, not all types of jobs are replaced. In a study done by a professor of economics at MIT, David Autor, the impact of automation has actually shown to complement labor by increasing the

The continued improvement of automation will have a positive effect in the future of the labor market due to a shift toward an increase in jobs for higher and mid range wages.

Automation Anxiety and its effects In the current economy, there is no surprise for anxiety over whether employees will lose their jobs or not. Due to an increase of research and use for automation and machine learning, more and more workers are starting to antagonize new technology. In the research paper ‘Where have all the jobs gone?’ by well-known journalist Daniel Akst, the automation anxiety is not completely false, but it only focuses on one side; “Unemployment has been concentrating among those with little education or skill, while employment has been rising most rapidly in occupations generally considered to be the most skilled and require the most amount of education” (Akst). The rise of automation will mean a depletion of lower skilled jobs, which will cause an increase in education requirements to encourage more people to take up college and further education due to the introduction of more computer based jobs. Automation in the manufacturing business will have a positive effect; products can come out efficiently, quickly,

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a government run statistics center, showed that computer software engineering and jobs related to the increase in technology advances have shown to have a huge growth over the last few years and are projected to continue increasing in the future (Job). In Daniel Akst’s research, he quoted a different study done by David Autor, professor of economics at MIT, which explained that the current market for jobs is in an hourglass shape; favoring the finance and food industries, whereas the other industries are struggling (Akst). David Autor’s work on job outlook described the recent job market statistics have found that the agricultural industry has fallen sharply, from “41 percent of the US workforce” in 1900, to a mere “2 percent” in 2000 (Autor). The decrease in farm workers is best explained by the increase in larger farm businesses dominating the industry, which has led to many farmers changing their occupation and/or selling their land. Through the increase of automation, the amount of hard labor required has dramatically decreased, but has had no impact on increasing the farm job market. The panic in the agricultural and factory industries has created a feeling of anxiety in