Unemployment, now at about 8%, will get worse. Occupy Wall Street-type protests will arrive as early as next year as machines increasingly replace middle-class workers in high cost, specialized jobs. In businesses, CIOs in particular, will face quandaries as they confront the social impact of their actions.
Will tech steal your job? Should we expect massive social unrest because of technological change? I’m not convinced.
We have undergone thousands of years of technological change. Today we live in the most technologically sophisticated society we have ever seen. And yet – we also enjoy one of the lowest unemployment rates and one of the highest standards of living. Countries with high technology adoption see lower unemployment rates and higher standards of living – not the other way around. Technological advancement and the adoption of technology increases productivity – the productivity of workers. Certainty technological change will impact the type of work we do. But it won’t dictate a complete departure from individuals working.
