Will Robots Take our Jobs or Expand Employment Opportunities?

The following articles and presentations scrutinize the risks and opportunities for human employment in an ever more automated workplace. 

AsianRoboticsReview.com, Will Cobots & Augmented Reality (AR) Spike Productivity?  Tom Green, May 2017

AUVSI NEWS, WAL-MART DEPLOYING SHELF-SCANNING ROBOTS IN 50 OF ITS STORES (Wal-Mart states this will not affect employee head count), Staff, November 2017

BBC, How automation will affect you – the experts’ view, Richard Gray, May 2017

BBC News, Will warehouse packing robot cost jobs?, November 2017

CBC, These Canadians are helping the world become replicant ready: Don Pittis, Don Pittas, October 2017

Central Valley Business Times, The Future of Work,  (video) from Retro Report and Quartz, November 2017

Bbvacompass.com, When Robots Do It All and Leisure is Mandatory: Not for Another 100 Years, Shushanik Papanya, July 2017

CBSNews.com, When the robots take over, will there be jobs left for us?, David Pogue, April 2017

Computerworld, There’s no such thing as a ‘remote’ employee, Mike Elgan, September, 2017

GeekWire, Robots vs. jobs: Report says automation will displace up to 375M workers by 2030, Alan Boyle, November 2017

Inverse.com, New Study Confirms that, Yes, Automation is Taking jobs, Graham Templeton, March 2017

Moneyish.com, Americans are totally delusional about what robots could soon do to their careers, Catey Hill, August 2017

Mother Jones, You Will Lose Your Job to a Robot –and Sooner Than You Think, Kevin Drum, October 2017

PC Magazine, Will the Robots Take Our Jobs in 2018? Experts Weigh In, Rob Marvin, December 2017

Reuters News, Rise of the machines: Philippine outsourcing industry braces for AI, Karen Lemu, November 2017

Robohub.org, Robots won’t steal our jobs if we put workers at center of AI revolution, Thomas Kochan & Lee Dyer, September 2017

TED, How we’ll earn money in a future without jobs, Martin Ford, November 2017

TheAtlantic.com, Radio Atlantic: Ask Not What Your Robots Can Do for You, Matt Thompson, August 2017

TheGuardian.com, What jobs will still be around in 20 years? Read this to prepare your future, Arwa Mahdawi, June 2017

The Japan Times, Japan’s robots stepping up to fill worst labor shortage in 40 years, Pavel Alpeyev and Katsuyo Kuwako, December 2017

Weforum.org, The Future of Jobs Report, Klaus Schwab, September 2017

The New York Times, Will Robots Take Our Children’s Jobs?, Alex Williams, December 2017

Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, The Future of Employment, Carl Benedikt Frey & Michael Osborne, September 2013


Photo: A worker observes a riveting robot inside the mid-body fuselage of a 777 jet (image courtesy of Boeing).  Chart via the McKinsey Global Institute. It shows that automation is likely to have a more disruptive impact on employment in richer countries such as the U.S. and Japan. Statistical sources include the World Bank and Oxford Economics.  Image and illustration courtesy of Geekwire.com.
Our thanks to Marc T. Liu, for his assistance in compiling these links.  © 2017 NREF