It is nothing new if I say that we are at the beginning of a new ‘digital’ age in which IT plays a prominent role. It is also nothing new that almost warmheartedly welcome this transformation and that we, as BIM students, almost only look at the bright side of the development. However, another trend is going hand in hand with the upcoming of the digital age; inequality. The International Monetary Fund has released an article in which it states that ‘The robot revolution could have profound negative implications for equality’
This week, ING has released the news that they will fire 7000 people due to the increased importance of IT and the cost reduction this brings. A total of 15 % of the employees won’t be returning to their office because of IT! While it is a fact that labour disappear when a new technology is adopted, new jobs were created at every level to support the new technology (think of a train driver with the industrial revolution). The main difference with the digital age is that only new jobs are created for highly educated people with specific skills. According to H. Bandholz of UniCredit this will have a great negative impact on the lower educated people: “Some of the productivity gains from robot densification are shared with workers through higher wages. The issue is, however, that different income and skill groups do not benefit to the same extent, which means that robotization further adds to income inequality.”
In the research of the IMF it is however assumed that robots are perfect substitutes of employee’s labour. This assumption gives rise to the opportunity in which people can differentiate themselves from robots: human interaction. Humans have to focus on their comparative advantages, like non-cognitive skills and soft skills. A research by D. Deming (2015) supports this statement and shows that jobs with high social skill requirements have experienced greater relative growth throughout the wage distribution since the 1980’s. Moreover, employment and wage growth has been strongest in jobs that require high levels of both cognitive skill and social skill. A research of Young Capital has shown that 30 % of the young employees are afraid that their job will be taken by robots in the future. Young Capital has developed an e-assessment to find the soft-skills of students to prepare them better in their job search.
So to make sure that you won’t lose your job to mister Robot, make sure to develop your social skills!
Reference:
Deming, D. J. (2015). The growing importance of social skills in the labor market (No. w21473). National Bureau of Economic Research.
In my opinion, jobs disappearin is not such a big problem. The easiest solution in my view would be to just work less hours and divide the work that’s left more evenly among everyone. This is not a new solution, in the fifties in the Netherlands still knew a six-day workweek, people worked on average 2280 hours per year. Now this is only 1720 hours a year.
In the future, if really so many jobs would disappear due to robots, why couldn’t we just go to a 4-day-workweek, who wouldn’t enjoy a bit more leisure-time?
https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2006/35/voltijders-werken-in-halve-eeuw-fors-minder
Interesting article Stijn! I have also read a couple of articles regarding to this topic. However, most of them claim that the problem you state will take long enough for people to recognize the problem and adapt to the situation. People with low-skilled jobs which are destined for robot take-over (like tram drivers) know that they will be replaced and could already take action years before this happens to make sure they have a job by then. Of course these people need help and researchers should find out which ‘future jobs’ will become available so people could get the right education and make sure they are suitable for the job by then. It probably won’t happen that in 50 years half of the population is unemployed, however the job market will be transformed.
Source: http://www.nu.nl/weekend/3777196/robots-werk-zullen-overnemen-.html