Recession, Tech Kill Middle-Class Jobs
Un pobre guey writes "'To understand the impact technology is having on middle-class jobs in developed countries, the AP analyzed employment data from 20 countries; tracked changes in hiring by industry, pay and task; compared job losses and gains during recessions and expansions over the past four decades; and interviewed economists, technology experts, robot manufacturers, software developers, entrepreneurs and people in the labor force who ranged from CEOs to the unemployed.' Their findings: Technology has consistently reduced the number of manufacturing jobs for 30 years; people with repetitive jobs have been easy to replace in the past, and task jugglers like managers and supervisors will be likely targets in the future; companies in the S&P 500 have expanded their business and increased profits, but reduced staffing, thanks to tech; and startups are launching much more easily these days. The response to the article includes the dutifully repeated bad-government-is-at-fault and don't-worry-it's-like-the-Industrial-Revolution ...
business
ceos
economist
employment
expansion
recession
s-like-the-industrial-revolution
technology
Found more than 1 month ago on channel
Slashdot
Is Technology Eroding Employment?
First time accepted submitter Idontpostmuch writes "The idea that technology cannot cause unemployment has long been taken as a simple fact of economics. Lately, some economists have been changing their tune. MIT research scientist Andrew Mcaffee writes, 'As computers and robots get more and more powerful while simultaneously getting cheaper and more widespread this phenomenon spreads, to the point where economically rational employers prefer buying more technology over hiring more workers. In other words, they prefer capital over labor. This preference affects both wages and job volumes. And the situation will only accelerate as robots and computers learn to do more and more, and to take over jobs that we currently think of not as "routine," but as requiring a lot of skill and/or education.'" Note: Certainly not all economists agree "that technology cannot cause unemployment," especially in the short term. From a certain perspective, displacing labor is a, if not the, central advantage ...
andrew
economist
education
employment
idontpostmuch
mcaffee
mit
preferences
scientists
situation
technology
unemployment
Found more than 1 month ago on channel
Slashdot
If Tech Is So Important, Why Are IT Wages Flat?
dcblogs writes "Despite the fact that technology plays an increasingly important role in the economy, IT wages remain persistently flat. This may be tech's inconvenient truth. In 2000, the average hourly wage was $37.27 in computer and math occupations for workers with at least a bachelor's degree. In 2011, it was $39.24, adjusted for inflation, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. That translates to an average wage increase of less than a half percent a year. In real terms, IT wages overall have gone up by $1.97 an hour in just over 10 years, according to the EPI. Data from professional staffing firm Yoh shows wages in decline. In its latest measure for week 12 of 2012, the hourly wages were $31.45 and in 2010, for the same week, at $31.78. The worker who earned $31.78 in 2010 would need to make $33.71 today to stay even with inflation. Wages vary by skill and this data is broad. The unemployment rate for tech has been in the 3-4% range, but EPI says full employment ...
employment
epi
inflation
institute
occupation
policy
technology
unemployment
yoh
Found more than 1 month ago on channel
Slashdot
Entrepreneurs Starting Up With Fewer Employees
Constrained by scarcer financing but aided by better technology, new businesses have fewer employees than they did a decade ago, posing a worrying trend for employment.
business
employment
technology
IBM Buys Social HR And Talent Management Software Company Kenexa For $1.3B In Cash
IBM has scooped up talent management and HR software maker Kenexa. The price? A hefty $1.3 billion, or $46.00 per share in cash. The NASDAQ-listed Kenexa offers an HR, talent acquisition and talent management software. The product includes recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) that provides global recruitment services; recruitment technology solutions; onboarding solutions, which offer forms management for legal documents, workflow, and electronic signatures; employee assessments that help organizations to select and retain top performers; Kenexa Prove It, a skills test solution to identify and select the talented candidates;and Kenexa Interview Builder, which provides an online structured interview reference library of approximately 3,000 questions; and employment branding solutions.
acquisition
assessment
builder
buys
documents
employment
ibm
kenexa
management
nasdaq-listed
organization
question
recruitment
reference
rpo
service
solution
technology