Computers Reshaping Global Job Market, for Better and Worse

by  Ann Saphir; edited by Lisa Shumaker, Reuters

Automation and increasingly sophisticated computers have boosted demand for both highly educated and low-skilled workers, while decreasing demand for middle-skilled jobs, according to a paper by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor David Autor. However, only the highly educated workers are receiving higher wages because as middle-skilled jobs disappear, those workers are more likely to seek lower-skilled jobs, boosting the pool of available labor and putting downward pressure on wages.

“While computerization has strongly contributed to employment polarization, we would not generally expect these employment changes to culminate in wage polarization except in tight labor markets,” Autor says. He says long-term strategies to utilize advances in computers should rely on investments in human capital to produce skills that are complemented rather than substituted by technology.

Still, the paper says computer-driven job polarization has a natural limit, as many jobs require routine tasks that are too intertwined with those needing interpersonal and other human skills to be easily replaced. “I expect that a significant stratum of middle skill, non-college jobs combining specific vocational skills with foundational middle skills–literacy, numeracy, adaptability, problem-solving, and common sense–will persist in coming decades,” Autor says. The paper says globalization and technology should benefit the economy in the long term, but could have a disruptive impact in the short term.  Read the article