In the sources, “Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation” by David H. Autor and “The Future of Jobs: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerisation?” by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, The authors’ purpose is to take on the task of explaining the effect of Automation on the labor market in the past and what it means for the future. Autor uses strong logical arguments (logos), and his expertise in economics (ethos) to assert that there will always be a demand for jobs in the face of automation, but his essay doesn’t guarantee the quality of those jobs or that our society will be readily qualified for the good skillful jobs that will be created. Ultimately this introduces a call to action for society to invest in human
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For example, Autor denounces the idea that technology and automation makes human labor obsolete by stating the fact that “the employment-to-population ratio rose during the 20th century even as women moved from home to market” Autor also uses logic to answer the question, why hasn’t automation reduced the employment in fields which have been affected by automation. To answer this question Autor refers to a study which focuses on bank tellers. The thought was that with the increase in automated teller machines (ATMs) the number of human bank tellers would fall. Although the number of tellers per bank had fallen by more than a third, the actual number of human tellers had risen from 500,000 to 550,000 from 1980 to 2010. It’s also important to think about how those teller jobs had changed with the addition of ATMs. With machines having a comparative advantage in systematic tasks like exchanging cash, this means that tellers now focus more on tasks that would be more suitable for person to person interaction, like salespeople who focus on loans and
For example, Autor denounces the idea that technology and automation makes human labor obsolete by stating the fact that “the employment-to-population ratio rose during the 20th century even as women moved from home to market” Autor also uses logic to answer the question, why hasn’t automation reduced the employment in fields which have been affected by automation. To answer this question Autor refers to a study which focuses on bank tellers. The thought was that with the increase in automated teller machines (ATMs) the number of human bank tellers would fall. Although the number of tellers per bank had fallen by more than a third, the actual number of human tellers had risen from 500,000 to 550,000 from 1980 to 2010. It’s also important to think about how those teller jobs had changed with the addition of ATMs. With machines having a comparative advantage in systematic tasks like exchanging cash, this means that tellers now focus more on tasks that would be more suitable for person to person interaction, like salespeople who focus on loans and