Anyone who is interested in how manufacturing jobs are evolving (and disappearing) should be sure to read Adam Davidson's excellent article in the current issue of The Atlantic: "Making it in America." The article is based on interviews with workers and executives at Standard Motor Products, a manufacturer...

At the 2011 Google I/O developer's conference, Google announced a new initiative called "cloud robotics" in conjunction with robot manufacturer Willow Garage. Google has developed an open source (free) operating system for robots, with the unsurprising name "ROS" -- or Robot Operating System. In other words, Google is...

Honda has just released a new version of its ASIMO robot, which is now fully autonomous (as opposed to remote-controlled).

ASIMO can navigate complex environments along with people, recognize and distinguish faces and voices -- even when people are speaking simultaneously. And it can do a lot of other stuff.

For a very long time there has been a gaping void in our political discourse. The social issues that divide the country all have vocal, well-funded advocates on both sides of the debate. But in the economic arena the story has been very different. Powerful corporations and the business/financial elite...

The complete capitulation to Republican extortion by the Obama Administration is likely to have disastrous implications for the economy and for unemployment. The effect of the relentless conservative campaign for austerity is to take ever more income and security from the average working Americans who make up over 95% of the population...

Washington's Blog has a post on the possibility that: Raging Inequality May Cause Unrest and Violence In America and the Rest of Western World.

This is something that I've been wondering about for quite a while. I've been writing here primarily about the impact of technology...

Millions of people hold low-wage, often part-time jobs in the fast food industry. Historically, low wages, few benefits and a high turnover rate have helped to make fast food openings relatively abundant. These jobs, together with other low-skill positions in retail, provide a kind of safety net for workers with...

Two notable economists have recently weighed in on the issue that I've been writing about extensively: job automation and its impact on the future economy.

Paul Krugman links to a 1996 article in which he imagined a future where "information technology would end up reducing, not increasing, the...

There's a very good article in The New York Post on the polarization of the job market and the disappearing middle class:

From 1979-2009, there was a nearly 12% drop in the four "middle-skill" occupations: sales, office/administrative workers, production workers, operators. Meanwhile, people in the top 20% of...

There can be little doubt that a significant enthusiasm gap played a major role in the outcome of the midterm elections. The liberal Democratic base is disappointed, and if there's one particular issue that underlies that disappointment it's probably the lack of a public option in the health care bill...

I've been blogging here about the likelihood that various forms of automation will eventually create significant technological unemployment. Advanced robotics will certainly play an important role in that once it becomes cost-effective to replace even low wage service workers with machines.

I find it interesting that very few other people...

A leading technology blog, SingularityHub, recently reported that a Silicon Valley area hospital is announcing layoffs at the same time it begins to employ robots:

El Camino Hospital in Silicon Valley is looking to cut expenses, so they've invested in 19 Aethon TUG robots. These smart...

Dear Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffett:

Your charitable initiatives via the Gates Foundation and your efforts to persuade other billionaires to match your generosity are highly commendable. Nonetheless, one must wonder, given the current challenges facing our country, if the path you have chosen truly represents the best way to...

Google recently announced a new machine learning engine that it will make available to software developers. Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) in which an application can learn from processing real data and become more proficient over time. By making the tool available, Google will...

People who work in knowledge-based fields like information technology, accounting, graphic design or legal research are probably well aware that their jobs are susceptible to being outsourced to a low wage country. In fact, I suspect that economists underestimate the impact that this practice will have on the job market...

Nouriel Roubini recently wrote an article at Project Syndicate called "Gordon Gekko Reborn" in which he argues that it's pointless and naive to expect that people on Wall Street won't be driven by greed. Gordon Gekko, of course, was the now legendary character (loosely based on inside trader...

Lately, there has been a fair amount of buzz in the economics blogosphere about the issue that I've been discussing here: Structural Unemployment.

Paul Krugman touches on it here. Brad DeLong says this. Mark Thoma has a post in a forum focusing...

I've seen a few articles in the press recently which explore the seeming contradiction between the ailing economy and soaring corporate profits. This article in the New York Times tells how Harley-Davidson is doing a great job of generating profits even as motorcycle sales fall for the third...

Previously, I've argued here that job automation technology might someday advance to the point where most routine or repetitive jobs will be performed by machines or software, and that, as a result, we may end up with severe structural unemployment. The latest weekly report shows an

Fed Chairman Bernanke's speech in Atlanta earlier this year focused a lot of attention on the debate about the forces that led to the current crisis. Was it primarily Greenspan's low interest rates, or as Bernanke suggested, was a lack of regulation and oversight a more important issue? Nearly everyone...