Why threaten our jobs

Big tech companies, for example, have been hiring many people from overseas on an increasing basis, claiming that American workers lack the skills needed to fulfill certain job openings.

Needless background and credit checks are costing people jobs — we know that for sure. In fact, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently came down on some background check providers for cutting corners and providing bad data, which led to many people missing out on opportunities.

Credit checks are also a fruitless endeavor, choking up the hiring systems and leaving many otherwise qualified applicants on the outside looking in. People around the world are becoming better educated and more skilled, and are also willing to work for lower wages — which is bad news for American workers.

Typically, we think of manufacturing jobs being outsourced. But over the years, that has spilled over into other industries as well, including technology. When recessions do occur, it usually leads to some cost-cutting measures by firms, and that typically includes layoffs. The best thing you can do is to be prepared by having some savings in place, and by making yourself as valuable to your company as possible.

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Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking believed that robots would replace humankind — and robotic technology has been growing faster than expected. Related News.

Category News. Europe epicentre of Covid pandemic again — latest updates. Africans with diabetes at higher risk of Covid related death - WHO. Show people, places and other topics in this story Read articles related to this story See what's popular on TRT World. A picture is worth a thousand words. Follow us on Instagram. Leave aside how businesses reopen. The bigger question is, how will they be thinking about the future of their factories?

Re-enter the robot, or more precisely, automation, a trend that was already alarming labor advocates and will be aggravated by COVID Nascent signs from the order books of industry giants like Fanuc Corp. There's room for robots. Worldwide, density remains low as many companies have had little desire to deal with integrating them into operations, or in triggering politically sensitive social backlash.

Differences across and within industries matter — robots do most of the stamping and welding in car factories, while humans conduct final inspections. Tasks requiring significant dexterity remain difficult for machines. A big change in the COVID era may be the lowering of barriers to adoption, which have largely come down to attitude.

South Korea and Germany can be held out as positive examples that have achieved high factory-automation levels while keeping unemployment low. A more pointed prod, though, may be simple necessity, which has driven most big changes in the way we use technology. The global health emergency has hamstrung companies in a way most never expected.

A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC of almost chief financial officers found that they didn't get what they needed to make informed decisions and response times were delayed. More automation could improve agility. The post-coronavirus dilemma looks like the old one, but worse.

The world will need more productivity, and automation is a way to get it. But what will happen to displaced, less-skilled workers? The pandemic could reduce working hours by 6. For now, governments are offering wage subsidies to businesses to retain employees. The onus will eventually also fall on companies to reskill and accommodate their workers. Separately, governments are incentivizing the transition to the robotic future.

Japan wants companies to bring supply chains home from China. Where there aren't enough skilled workers, more machines will be needed to collaborate — or so-called Cobots.