Headline May 14, 2017/ ''' JOBS? -JOBLESSNESS- JOBS! '''

''' JOBS? -JOBLESSNESS- JOBS! '''

*WE DO NOT LIVE TO THINK,  but, on the contrary, we think in order we may succeed in surviving*.

Very True!    The above quote is from  Jose Ortega Y Gasset.   

ONE LATEST REPORT    suggests that    two-thirds of all jobs in the 

developing world are at a risk of being lost through automation.

It is many times worth repeating that Automation and Robots have led to much of gloom in industrialised economies.

At the beginning of this century the  US employed over 15 million people in the manufacturing sector. In the 17 years since, the country has lost close 3 million manufacturing jobs-

While manufacturing output has increased by almost 30 per cent.

This has transpired during the period in which the US underwent its worst economic crisis since the  Great Depression.

New research by  Daron  Acemogle  of  M.I.T. and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University  concludes that there are   ''large and negative effects of robots on employment and wages''  and-

That the adoption of a robot for every  1,000  workers    decreased employment by   6.2 workers   and    wages by 0.7 per cent in the US. 

These industrial robots have destroyed jobs in sectors that have traditionally created  millions of blue-collar  jobs  such as the manufacturing of cars, electronics, metals, plastics and chemicals.   

Economies that have not yet become fully industrialised are also undergoing similar changes .

China's  manufacturing base  is rapidly evolving and the country has purchased more than  25 per cent of the  248,000  industrial robot units sold around the world in 2015.

Foxconn, a company that manufactures core components for Apple in China and employs an army of workers, recently replaced over  60,000 workers with robots in a single factory.

While industrial economies are already losing jobs, the risks to developing economies is far greater : a World bank report   suggests that two-thirds of all jobs in the  developing world are at risk of being lost through automation.

This is because  developed economies have wealth, institutions capable of  implementing  forward-looking policies, and a historic record of successfully dealing with industrial revolution of the past.   

For emerging economies, the risks, if they materialise, can upend the economic and social gains they have made in recent years.

A number of emerging economies witnessed high levels of growth by utilising their cheap labour to manufacture goods for the rest of the world.. 

The expectation was that these economies would follow a growth trajectory similar to that followed followed by industrialised economies.   

As millions of people are put to work to manufacture exports, countries would fully realise their demographic dividend. 

Exports oriented  industrialisation would increase incomes and wealth, thereby increasing consumption expenditure in the economy.

Ultimately the country would transition to a consumer and service oriented economy.

A country like South Korea was the blueprint for this type of growth, and China is, in many ways, undergoing a similar evolution.

Technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution have the potential to make this development model defunct before most of the benefits are realised by the rest of the world.

While industrial robots are already replacing blue-collar workers, automation through artificial intelligence  is beginning to replace service sector jobs as well.

A report discussed at  Davos  suggested that over 5 million mostly white-collar jobs will be destroyed by this revolution and in 15 industrialised and developing economies by 2020. JPMorgan Chase & Co, for example, recently deployed a programme called-

COIN which automated 360,000 hours of work conducted by lawyers  every year to  review and  interpret commercial loan agreements.

These technological advances could also eliminate the benefits of wage-arbitrage that attracted manufacturing companies to developing economies where labour was relatively cheaper.

As industrial robots become ever-cheaper and advances in material sciences enable  3-D printing of products,  companies would not stand to gain as much by moving their manufacturing to developing economies.

In fact, they would be attracted to setting up manufacturing in industrialised economies due to the availability skilled labour capable of using these technologies.

If developing economies are to grow, they must implement policies that equip people with the skills required to develop new technologies.

Basic reading and writing skills will not be enough : the workforce of the fourth industrial revolution must know how to read and write computer and code and work in conjunction with sophisticated hardware and software.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution   is like a  bullet train coming it is up to policymakers to prepare and enable the masses to either get on board or risk being a casualty in its path.         

And to revisit and honor and sum Jawed Naqvi from Delhi, India : ''it is worrying that Indian Marxists, like their comrades elsewhere, are a threatened species.

The BJP is out to swallow their two remaining hubs.

It is worrying that the main Marxist groups -  and not to forget the Congress - seem to believe that the threat posed to  India's democracy by the BJP is comparable with  Mamata Bannerjee's rule in Bengal and Arvind Kejrwal's in Delhi/

Could  Chandan Kamble be right?''  

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the World See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society and................ Twitter-!E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Wakeup Calls '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless