James J. Hughes Ph.D.Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging TechnologiesPublic Policy Studies, Trinity College, Hartford CTJames.Hughes@trincoll.edu

As women entered the labor force in pink and white collar jobs, men were leaving farm and manual labor

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 2012

Increase in adult employment until 2000 But the paid labor force has declined since 2000 Jobless recovery since 2008

The percent of 18-65 year olds in paid labor

Outsourcing of manufacturing and service sectors jobs

Some jobs can’t be done from overseas (yet): e.g. education and healthcare

Some benefit from globalization, esp where skills and infrastructure give us an advantage

But we can’t all get those jobs, and that won’t last anyway

Computer power doubles every two years

All jobs are potentially automatable, done cheaper and better than human workers

Since the 1980s the fastest declining occupations had the highest rates of unionization, and the fastest growing occupations had low rates

Deskilling Jobs, Keeping the Profits

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 2012

Most new jobs are non-unionized and don’t pay as well

Professional, collegial core Growing hierarchical

management Resistance to measurement,

“efficiency” and automation Learning outcomes and

standardized tests and curricula Health outcomes and standardized

testing, treatment and care plans Pushed by managers, but now

management is also being downsized by computerization

Even diagnosing, prescribing and surgery can be automated

Robot nurses aides

Telepresence doctors

Robot patients

Robotic surgery

Expert diagnostic and treatment systems used by nurses and PAs do better than doctors for most conditions

Home and medical telemonitoring of heart, blood pressure, blood sugar, urinalysis, prescription compliance, etc.

Online and distance education models are growing, whether they work yet or not

The cost bubble in higher education is about to burst

1500 CT licenses for Odysseyware online credit recovery

• University of Phoenix is largest in US• Stanford, Harvard, MIT all experimenting

Jobs requiring human empathy and insight are probably going to be the last to automate

But still..

Robot prostitutes

AI Counseling Smartphone confession

So far, education has determined who is most vulnerable

But not for much longer…

Power determines who bears the brunt of the pain from technological changes in the workplaceSecretaries and BossesK12 teachers vs. ProfsParalegals vs. PartnersNurses vs. Doctors

But now everyone is under pressure from automationTaylorism vs. humane managementExtending the productivity of workers in good, interesting jobs versus reducing jobs until they can replaced by robots

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 2012

In egalitarian countries technological change has led to prosperity

Decline of worker-firm compact

More part-time and contingent labor

Increasingly rapid job changes

Longer healthy, working lives

Glut of PhDs

Curricular flexibility of adjunct faculty

Fiscal logic in the cost bubble

But we’re also working longer

Continuous education and upskilling throughout life

Severing the link of health insurance, pensions and even income from the job

Economies need consumers even more than workers

More social movement, less collective bargaining

Defending the social wage, not just wages, unemployment insurance and pensions

National health insurance, not just a health plan (or Medicare)

Wisconsin and Ohio: Labor as a national leader in the fight against austerity and for fairness

Occupy was a model in using media, but lacks the structure of the labor movement

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 2012

The power of the image Bottom-up surveillance

Social media not a broadcast media, but a relationship media

Social media to build a constant thread of connection to members, allies and the community

Social media as an electronic immune system for labor rights

Beyond top-down union communications to lateral, organic communications

“I’m getting arrested” app

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologiesieet.org

These slides:

http://ieet.org/archive/20120519-Labor.ppt

Me: director@ieet.org