A full one-fourth of all U.S. employment is highly vulnerable to automation , a unexampled report from the Brookings Institutefinds . That ’s the equivalent of 36 million job . Meanwhile , some 36 percent of U.S. employment—52 million caper — will “ experience intermediate exposure to automation in coming decades . ”
While the remainder of U.S. jobs are likely to see only down in the mouth levels of automation , the report finds that “ Almost no occupation will be unaffected by the adoption of currently available technologies . ”
That ’s not quite the tagline I ’d give the chart below — I think I ’d go with “ Most jobs are reasonably - to - very susceptible to automation , ” but hey .
These findings are n’t particularly scandalous , but the report card does a overnice job of breaking down some of the granularities of where , how , and who automation will hit hardest .
For one thing , rural areas will see more automation risk than urban ones — largely because manufacturing and Department of Agriculture work is concentrated there , and rural economies are less diversified than metro ace . ( Note that really rural sphere and very small towns are less vulnerable — it ’s heavy to automatise many local businesses and tiny , non - agriculture mathematical process . )
Low - paying line are the most vulnerable , as you ’d expect , because they incline to be the most workaday , and thus most automate - capable , kinds of work .
Again , rural and Rust Belt states are , as a rule , more exposed to automation risk , for much the same reasons described above . As a side note , there ’s a ~pretty~ potent corollary between Red States and automate - able states — many have been open to a bequest of automation and outsourcing — which continues to support the theory that mechanisation help oneself fuel resentment and course anger and , well , Trump .
Latino , Black , and Native American universe are significantly more likely to see their jobs automated than snowy or Asian population — again , due to structural inequality , minority are more probable to be stuck with lower - wage , lousy , routine jobs .
I do not agree with the policy recommendations of the report , which leave off with the mistily dystopian “ further a constant learning mindset”—as in , expect to continually essay to adapt to the ever - speed charge per unit of automation or else — and proceed on to some very meek suggestions for reforming income supports for displace workers . It suggests a “ Universal Adjustment Benefit ” which seems to be a nod towards a Universal Basic Income , just much shittier and more conditional . It ’s basically glorified career counseling : Brooking recommends policymakers automatically enroll send away workers in counseling , combine with job training programs , and , ideally , more robust income support ( which , true , would be good ) .
I’vesaid it beforeandI’ll say it again , but I ’m very threadbare of these report stray mechanization as a force out of nature , and then catering to the want of the company , owners , and organizations doing the automating . The policy suggestions almost all entail trying to control workers can keep up with the accelerating pace of product , that they be able to maximise net income and productivity for companieswhatever the scenario .
Where is the report that suggests workers themselves profit even one iota from all this mechanization — say , in the pattern of increased benefit now open by the nifty profit margins render by mechanisation ? Or in the figure of , gasp , a shorter working hebdomad ? There ’s a policy passport that makes sense in the age of aggregative - mechanizing body of work — and that ’s always been the dreaming of automation , right ? Why not look across the land and see all these tasks getting automatise and nominate a scheme of coexisting with the robots that are taking our job ? The short resolution is that this does not do good the executive and managerial year . And if workers are going to see the benefits from automation , as usual , they ’re operate to have to fight for them .
Interestingly , a movement is begin to form on on the button that front , and a bit afterward this workweek , I ’ll have news program of one of its initial burst .
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the future tense , delivered to your present .
