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Portentous changes to the work economies of India and the USA due to job automation by machines and robots continue to make headlines. Varieties of hardware and software automation are seeing implementation burgeon in both countries, as companies seek efficiency by replacing humans with machines. Wage erosion in areas previously unaffected by automation - including varieties of programming - is getting commoner while new, albeit highly specialized, engineering jobs are created. Both articles encourage educational changes mindful of these realities, though how colleges either side of the world can adapt to the blistering pace of automation is unclear.
The latest tranche of job automation news comes hot on the heels of Davos' prediction that machine automation will result in a net loss globally of over 5 million jobs prior to 2020.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 10 2016, @11:31PM
We should have gone to a 32 hour work week about 25 years ago. How about now?
It'll just mean people will have to work two jobs to make ends meet. And such a mandate also makes workers more costly to employers because the fixed costs of the worker don't go down as well.
Once again, we're ignoring the fact that most of the world doesn't have and can't afford labor policies that restrict the number of hours you work per week. Any policy like this will just weaken the position of that developed world society with respect to the rest of the world. I would rather that we go the other way and increase the length of the work week.