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Future of Automation and Jobs. Analysis of write up in Economist, WSJ and NYT

We are living in dichotomous world. There are robots everywhere, yet we are facing labor shortages. So what's the future of automation. 

 

 

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Analysis of Economist article. A head-scratcher. There’s a debate about whether the COVID-19 pandemic has been draining jobs from highly automatable industries. If that’s the case, why are there labor shortages? Why are wages of the lowest-paid workers rising? And why did the US have one million more “routine” (and highly automatable) jobs in May 2021 than expected? Keep watching this space. Read the economist here:

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/06/19/is-the-pandemic-accelerating-automation-dont-be-so-sure?cid=other-eml-onp-mip-mck&hlkid=16dbdf27b5234632be28af16caeb4c9b&hctky=9431270&hdpid=b0df508f-fbbc-47f3-900e-734a5eb7715c

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Analysis of WSJ. article. Filling the gaps. Warehouse businesses—facing a labor crunch and surging online demand—are turning to self-driving machines to move products down warehouse aisles and pick goods from higher shelves. Experts and logistics-automation companies say demand for the technology has grown as companies look for ways to cope with worker scarcity and physical-distancing requirements that limit building occupancy. Read the WSJ article 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/warehouses-look-to-robots-to-fill-labor-gaps-speed-deliveries-11621878163?st=4orpuxndpeb2rvd&reflink=article_email_share&cid=other-eml-onp-mip-mck&hlkid=501b0c1f701b40f99c56267f266d0469&hctky=9431270&hdpid=b0df508f-fbbc-47f3-900e-734a5eb7715c

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Your robot surgeon. Robots have long been helping in surgeries, but now they can match or even exceed a human in dexterity, precision, and speed. Using the same technologies that underpin self-driving cars, autonomous drones, and warehouse robots, researchers are working to automate their surgical counterparts—not to replace surgeons in the operating room but to ease their load and raise success rates. They may even enable remote surgeries. Read the NYT article here

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/technology/robot-surgery-surgeon.html?cid=other-eml-onp-mip-mck&hlkid=5b3dea2ff6fa49b695a443a41a194fde&hctky=9431270&hdpid=b0df508f-fbbc-47f3-900e-734a5eb7715c

 

 

 

 

 

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Why it matters. Two ways businesses control cost and mitigate uncertainty during recessions are by adopting automation and redesigning work processes, reducing the share of jobs involving mainly routine tasks. The pandemic accelerated existing trends in remote work, e-commerce, and automation—with up to 25% more workers than previously estimated potentially needing to switch occupations.
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