Employment competition in the new job market will increasingly pit humans against robots, and the smart money is riding on the latter, because humans are shaping up to be no match for machines when it comes to entry-level employment opportunities.
In “Lower Mainland eateries starving for workers” (Business in Vancouver issue 1450; August 15-21], Ian Tostenson, president of the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association, noted that difficulty in attracting and retaining workers is a theme common to large chains and smaller local restaurants alike.
In decades past, the restaurant trade was an instructive entry point for young people seeking workplace experience.
But Tostenson said the service sector’s labour shortage, driven in large part by the baby boomer job market exodus, is being exacerbated by an apparent reluctance of upcoming generations to embrace the industry’s employment opportunities.
Meanwhile in Asia, more companies are investing in artificial intelligence research and systems aimed at increasing efficiency. In many cases, that increased efficiency does not include human beings.
According to “Plans on the rise in China to replace workers with robots” (Business in Vancouver issue 1450; August 15-21), a government survey in Kunshan found that 600 major companies in the Chinese county plan to replace workers with robots or other automated systems.
Little wonder then that a recent Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship automation analysis estimated that nearly 42% of the Canadian workforce is “at high risk of being affected by automation in the next decade or two.”
Machines might be subject to mechanical wear and tear and need routine maintenance, but they are otherwise reliable. The same cannot be said for human workers, and that should raise concerns from factory floor to C-suite because the economic and social costs of unemployment by automation will have serious economic and productivity implications for more than those who are rendered redundant in the labour market.
