As of today, robots perform about 10% of manufacturing tasks in businesses, which could potentially rise to 45% in 2025. Experts at Oxford University expect almost half of all U.S. jobs to be at high risk of being replaced by computers/robots. With an increasing supply of robots, prices of robots are dropping, causing the idea to be more intriguing to companies. Countries such as China and Japan have been paving the way for the increased use of technology. According to the study, firefighters, clergy, photographers, and physicians have the lowest risk of losing their jobs to robots. On the other hand, sports umpires, telemarketers, and paralegals have the highest risk. If this study were to correctly predict the increase in the use of robots, the unemployment rate could potentially have a drastic increase. With an increase in unemployment, the economy could be put in a very tough spot. The total income of American households would decrease, causing a reduction in consumer spending, which could potentially lead to a lower nominal GDP in the future.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/15/news/economy/smart-robots-stealing-jobs-davos/index.html?iid=EL
The idea of more robots being used in the workplace is both exciting and scary. On one hand, businesses will be more productive and have decreased labor costs. On the other hand, the predicted increased use of robots will put many people out of jobs, which will definitely hurt the economy. The possibility of robots taking over many jobs increases the need for higher education to be more accessible to all Americans so that they can possess the skills to occupy jobs that cannot be taken over by robots.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty crazy to think how many jobs are replaceable by robots. I was surprised to hear that jobs like models or physicians would be replaced. When it come to a physician, there are defiantly people who would prefer to talk to a person rather than see with a robot. But robots could be better for some jobs such as firemen who have to put their lives at risk. It will defiantly be interesting to see how quickly robots are going to be integrated into society.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting topic. On one hand it's scary because we see the potential for these robots to take over a massive amount of jobs. On the other hand it paves the way for a new robotics industry to be created, with all the different kinds of jobs that will have to be created to support that industry. It will be very interesting to see how this affects the labor force in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt's sure that as the technology is progressing, in the future, most of jobs would be done by robots, since it would be less cost, more efficient and more safe. However, I think that there is a certain kind of jobs which could definitely not be totally done by robots. I believe that people prefer being served by human much more than emotionless machines. Moreover, I also believe that a traditional occupation disappears, there must be a new occupation appears.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, the using of robots in many industries can help avert labor shortage in developed countries like America and Japan, pushing the flowing back of manufacturing. On the other hand, for many developing countries liking Vietnam, Thailand and China, because of the cheapness of robots, those countries are facing the danger of losing labor cost advantage, which would cause the increase of unemployment rate. However, at the same time, this is a good chance for those countries to give impetus to industrial transformation and upgrading, trying to establish new competitive advantages.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, if this prediction were to happen, the US would have to certainly create more jobs because the unemployment rate would drastically rise and would eventually negatively impact the GDP. I think innovation with robots is a great idea and will change the country for the better one day, but we as a country need to recognize the pros and cons that will effect our country and make sure it's going to weigh more positively than negatively before we take action.
ReplyDeleteThis is often the fear over the past century or even longer, that new technology is going to replace man-power. I think we always find a way to adjust, and ultimately it improves our standard of living. In the short run it's scary because people can't for see the future and they may not be able to get a job immediately after the lose one, but for the economy as a whole its a good thing. We can use robots for tasks where humans aren't as efficient, and use humans for tasks where we really need them like in the healthcare industry or other areas where robots won't suffice.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that it is very possible some jobs will be lost due to robots taking them, I feel that the reduced production costs will also lower the price of manufactured goods, which is always good for the consumer. I think most service jobs will be pretty safe, but repetitive manufacturing jobs will be at risk.
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ReplyDeleteIt is pretty evident that technology continues to have a larger and larger impact on both the everyday lives of Americans as well as the overall global economy. Technological advances in the past 100 years have been great for the world, being able to do everything from detect disease and illness to work with humans to conduct business. And as these technological advances continue to take over people's jobs, they also are forcing people to have more and more specialized skillsets. The implementation of robotic workers will only force more and more Americans to learn specialty skills that no robot can duplicate, and I think this is something that should be considered as a positive byproduct of further technological advances.
ReplyDeleteCrazy to think that people can loose their jobs to machines, but I do think that that is what the world has come to. With more robots I do think that they will definitely help the economy (minus stealing jobs) with maximizing production and decreasing human error. Creating the lost jobs on the other hand I think will be hard to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Trey, instead of analyzing it from the standpoint that it could hurt the job economy, we should look at as an opportunity for people to adapt programming these robots as a new language. These days knowing some sort of computer programming language is becoming as a popular as speaking French or Spanish, and in doing opens up opportunities for people to program these robots and then improve the the programming language to make the robots even better.
ReplyDeleteWith time we are becoming more and more dependent on technology. It is safe to say in todays day and age technology has a great influence on our daily lives. Having said that i will not be surprised to see robots take on a lot of jobs that humans do on a daily basis to earn money. Looking at companies such as coca cola who have 70% of their operations run by robots it is safe to say the transition may happen in the near future. i think robots will increase productivity and may also be more efficient. On the other side the problem is people will loose jobs and on the whole it may hurt the economy with higher unemployment rates, lesser taxes and more transfer payments.
ReplyDeleteThese predictions, to me, seem scary to say the least. While robots will ultimately help production efficiency and money for the company, this puts so many people at risk because this is all they know. While I agree that there are opportunities to gain work in programming, it seems a bit farfetched to believe the same people working on these assembly lines will adapt to be the type of person able to program a robot, and there will still be substantially less people employed after it's all said and done.
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