The Impact of Technology on Work and the Workforce

Details

• Personal Author:
  Howard J ; Schulte P
• Description:
  The global economic and health impact of technology, such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics on work and the workforce is increasingly being considered by commentators, but in widely divergent ways. One view is that technology will bring less work, make workers redundant or end work by replacing workers. The other major view is that technology will create abundant opportunities for workers and boost economies. Historically, as technology has changed the way work is done, the number of jobs created has outstripped the number of jobs eliminated. There is concern that although history may be correct, the future may reverse history, and worker displacement and unemployment due to automation, AI, and robotics will be widespread (Ford 2015). However, future forecasting is difficult and complicated. If analysts in 1870 in the United States had been informed that agriculture sector employment would go from almost 50% of the workforce to less than 2% in 2018, they also would be hard-pressed to foretell a burgeoning health care sector, software, and services as major sources of employment (Autor 2018; Daly 1981; Segal 2018). Still, with current evidence of technological displacement, there is a growing preponderance of analysis and commentary supporting the occurrence of technologically induced unemployment (Brynjolfsson and McAfee 2014; Frey and Osborne 2013). In many cases this displacement is the result of increased productivity which is responsible for reduction in labor demand and wages in some sectors (Acemoglu and Restrepo 2018). International trade, such as trade with China, has been mentioned as a contributing cause of job displacement, but competition from China may explain only a fourth of the decline in manufacturing during the 2000s (Autor et al, 2015). The view that technology is a prime cause of job displacement is bolstered by the concern that some technologies such as AI have the ability to replace something previously exclusive to humans: intelligence (EOP 2016). Cognitive capacity, including machine learning and decision making, will rapidly scale across all sectors and be as pervasive as electricity (Ford 2015). Go to the video of Paul Schulte. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Automation Decision Making Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  AI Artificial Intelligence Decision Making Emerging Technology Future Of Work Robotics
• Publisher:
  International Labour Organization (ILO)
• Document Type:
  Moving Image
• Genre:
  Videorecording
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  EID - Education and Information Division ; OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20055865
• Citation:
  Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organization (ILO), 2019 Mar; :1-4,video
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  The impact of technology on work and the workforce
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a9fa026ddb5a7ae71dbb2b9fdd111ae5d1da0a40b10476ac9f390144526559d63fac1db25f4a7290244355053d154f151b8213fd556efaee9a89d8227e5a0cc9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213626/cdc_213626_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 262.07 KB ]