Automation
in sentence
460 examples of Automation in a sentence
Other sectors that currently account for a large share of employment in lower-income countries – including apparel, light manufacturing, logistics, and call centers – are forecast to undergo increasing
automation.
As improvements in computers, robotic technologies, and other forms of job
automation
continue to accelerate, more workers are certain to be displaced, and job creation will become even more challenging.
The conservative media in the United States recently mocked President Barack Obama for suggesting that
automation
might hurt employment growth.
It seems likely that, as computer hardware and software continue to improve, many of these job types will become susceptible to automation, particularly to machine learning.
The problem today is that we are not talking about rapid
automation
of a single economic sector like agriculture.
As more workers are automated out of more employment sectors, there must come a “tipping point,” beyond which the overall economy simply is not sufficiently labor-intensive to continue absorbing workers who lose their jobs due to
automation
(or globalization).
But, if
automation
is relentless, the basic mechanism for putting purchasing power into the hands of consumers will break down.
In developed countries, the most disruptive impact to the job market would come from substantial
automation
of the service sector, which now employs the majority of workers.
Unemployment resulting from
automation
in the Chinese manufacturing sector could ultimately complicate China’s efforts to rebalance its economy toward increased domestic consumption – an objective that most economists agree is critical for the country’s long-term prosperity.
So, are we approaching the “tipping point” where
automation
fuels structural unemployment?
On the other hand, increased
automation
could be a huge barrier to economic development for countries still facing rapid population growth.
By making it possible to manufacture in almost workerless factories in advanced economies,
automation
could cut off the path of export-led growth that all of the successful East Asian economies pursued.
Even with growing investment in automation, these sectors have remained net job creators, and are forecast to add an additional three million workers by 2025 (although a shortage of employees with the necessary skills could hurt those projections).
But technological advances have enabled many of these middle-class jobs to be automated or moved offshore – a process that is expected to accelerate with growing
automation
of knowledge-based activities and advances in robotics.
We know that globalization and some aspects of digital technology (particularly those related to
automation
and disintermediation) have contributed to job and income polarization, placing sustained pressure on the middle class in every country.
Now, a third explanation is gaining traction: declines in full-time work opportunities and real wages are both due to
automation.
According to acronymically named institutions, think tanks, task forces, et hoc genus omne,
automation
and artificial intelligence (AI) will soon eliminate or alter a large but unpredictable number of human jobs.
We are also told that if the United States were to slow the pace of
automation
unilaterally, it would forfeit its dominant position on the world stage.
The authors are correct to view a policy of “full employment” as necessary (though not sufficient) to win the public’s acceptance of
automation.
In the end, the report never makes up its mind about whether flexible forms of work in the “gig economy” represent Keynesian demand deficiency, voluntary choices for part-time work and self-employment, or the involuntary encroachment of
automation.
If the goal is to lift all boats as far as possible, then some slowdown of globalization and
automation
is inescapable.
Upholding that right should not be sacrificed in the name of largely bogus calculations about the effects of slowing down
automation
on US global leadership.
But technological change also carries risks, especially for workers who lose their jobs to
automation
or lack the skills to work in higher-tech fields.
In Guangdong Province, the government has set an ambitious target of 80%
automation
by 2020.
Targeted policies have promoted the emergence of a diversified economy based on processed natural resources, high-value manufacturing industries – such as consumer electronics, industrial automation, and heavy industries – and services.
While productivity in Japanese factories is the highest in the world, owing to robots and other types of automation, the productivity of Japan’s white-collar workers is the lowest among OECD countries.
“McKinsey: One-third of US workers could be jobless by 2030 due to automation,” seconds another.
(In fact, coal jobs are disappearing because of
automation
and competition from cheaper natural gas, not because of regulations to reduce CO2 emissions.)
And, alongside obvious waste, China makes many high-return investments – in the excellent urban infrastructure of the first-tier cities, and in the
automation
equipment of private firms responding to rising real wages.
To be sure, large labor-surplus economies’ deepening integration into the global market, together with increased reliance on
automation
and artificial intelligence, has weakened workers’ bargaining power and shifted labor demand into very specific and limited sectors.
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