With automation making it’s way into the workforce, what are ways society can help those displaced from their jobs?

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In my previous post I concluded that despite the future of automated technology, research has shown that there should not be a complete fear of displacement. The fact of the matter is automation will continue to shape the future of the workplace. But that doesn’t mean people have to be left behind in the new economy. Jean-Pascal Nepper and Jeffrey Sachs offer their views on how we can help curve the displacement caused by automation.

Jeffrey Sachs is an economist and former Columbia University director, currently serving as an advisor to the United Nations in the Sustainable Development Goals department. In a 2015 article for American Prospect, Sachs discusses how public policy can allow robots to reduce human labor while also spreading wealth from newfound prosperity. Machines haven’t benefitted everyone in the modern world. For example, mechanized cotton pickers forced millions of small farmers and sharecroppers into a job search in the cities (Sachs 37). Even if lower-skilled workers acquired the skills needed to keep up with the machines, some of those aren’t in the position to afford a new education to do so. Machines are now more than capable of displacing many common jobs such as assembly line workers, sales workers, maintenance workers, and surveillance workers (Sachs 38). Sachs suggests that instead of capital owners and highly skilled workers absorbing all the gains, the government should ensure that the profits made from the new wave of automated productivity be shared. Taxes on wealth and high incomes could be returned in the form of education and training programs for lower skilled workers. More government-supported education and training should be offered for the occupations of the future as the economy will demand millions of new workers for operating new smart-systems and personal support services (Sachs 39). One process that cannot be automated is the sharing of benefits across the society (Sachs 39). Profit sharing within companies to spread benefits back to the workers will help alleviate the loss of work to robots.

Jean-Pascar Nepper is a partner at KPMG Luxembourg, a global network of professional services firm providing tax and advisory services. Pascal leads the Customer and Operations practice, focusing on customer-oriented solutions and human resource projects. On KPMG’s expert blog, Nepper writes that robots aren’t going to necessarily steal our jobs but instead significantly change them. With that being said, Nepper also believes that “Automation will free human workers from limited added-value routine activities and allow them to focus on more interesting and exciting jobs”. This occupational transformation starts at the top. Nepper asserts that it is up to “senior management and HR managers to take principled and proactive stands, as they need to lead the conversation and pre-empt, understand, and manage the changes” (Nepper, 2017). Company managers will have to figure out how to utilize both robotic and human labor into their workforce. The size and composition of the workforce needs to be shaped in both short- and long-term perspectives through a detailed blueprint of how human and digital labour can be optimally integrated (Nepper, 2017).

Both Nepper and Sachs suggest that automation can lead to a more positive outlook on the future of the workforce. With a change in public policy and job management, the opportunities for jobs and support for education and training is within reach for those displaced by robots.

Works Cited

Nepper, Jean-Pascal. “Digital vs. Human Labour: the Rise of the Humans.” KPMG Luxembourg, 14 Nov. 2017, https://blog.kpmg.lu/digital-vs-human-labour-the-rise-of-the-humans/.

Sachs , Jeffrey. “How To Live Happily With Robots .” American Prospect , 2015, pp. 37–39. EBSCOhost.