Technology is automating many jobs and replacing human labor. While this increases efficiency and profits, it also eliminates some jobs, especially lower-skilled positions. It creates a need for new highly-skilled technical jobs, but many displaced workers may struggle to retrain. The effects are a growing divide between highly-skilled workers who benefit from new opportunities, and others who face unemployment or an urgent need to gain new technical skills.

1. TECHNOLOGY
VERSUS
LABOR

2. Technology
• Technology is the making, usage, and
knowledge of tools, machines, techniques,
crafts, systems or methods of organization in
order to solve a problem or perform a specific
function.
• Technology is AUTOMATION.
• Automation is the use of control systems and
information technologies to reduce the need
for human work in the production of goods
and services.

3. Advantages
• Replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard
physical work.
• Replacing humans in tasks done in dangerous
environments (i.e. fire, space, volcanoes, nuclear
facilities, underwater, etc.)
• Performing tasks that are beyond human capabilities
of size, weight, speed, endurance, etc.
• Reduces operation time and work handling time.
• Frees up workers to take on other roles.
• Provides higher level jobs in the development,
deployment, maintenance and running of the
automated processes.

4. Disadvantages
• Security Threats: An automated system may
have limited level of intelligence, hence it is
most likely susceptible to commit error.
• Unpredictable development costs: The
research and development cost of automating
a process may exceed the cost .
• High initial cost: The automation of a new
product or plant requires a huge initial
investment in comparison with the unit cost of
the product.

5. Automation Human Interaction
• Engineers now can have numerical control over
automated devices.
• Information technology, together with industrial
machinery and processes, can assist in the
design, implementation, and monitoring of
control systems. One example of an industrial
control system is a programmable logic controller
(PLC). PLCs are specialized hardened computers
which are frequently used to synchronize the
flow of inputs from (physical) sensors and events
with the flow of outputs to actuators and events.

6. Technology in various spheres
Communication
• Traditionally it was by sending letters and cards to
the other person and waiting for weeks and
months to get responses. Then phones came into
existence. We can talk to only one person at a
time
• Now mobile messages, e-mails, video
conferencing like skype, 3G facilities on mobiles
have changed the face of the communication
industry.

7. • Computing
Usually people used to type letters on the
typewriters and it was a time consuming process.
If a mistake occurs, people used to write all
letters again. It was burdensome.
Now computers have made it all easy. Less
manual efforts are required.
Moreover PCs are no longer deskbound . Laptops
are now capable of performing similar tasks and
easy to carry. Multitasking is possible. Softwares
like Ms word, Ms Excel Adobe Photoshop are
helpful to a greater extent.

8. Travel
• When we wanted to book a vacation in the past,
we'd have to see our travel agent to make the
arrangements. In order to research our
destination, we turned to travel books to educate
us on where to stay and what to do.
• Nowadays, who needs travel agents when there
are Web sites like TripIt, which automatically
organize all our travel plans—flights, hotels, cars,
trains, cruises—and builds us a master itinerary
of maps, restaurants, and more.
• In ten years or so, travel agents will probably be
out of a job.

9. Artificial Intelligence
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is usually
defined as the science of making
computers do things that require
intelligence when done by
humans.
• Eg-Male and Female Robots
working in hospitals.
• Robots working in Car production,
packaging, Automatic guided
vehicles, in homes, etc.

10. Labor
• Labor is an ability to work. Labor includes both
physical and mental labor .
• Labor is a primary or human factor of
production. It indicates human resource.
• Labor is a heterogeneous factor.
• Labor have less mobility.
“Labour is a Mean as well as an End”

11. Technology affecting Labor
• An increase in the pace of technological change can have two
profound side effects in the labor market.
• It can increase the rate and the average duration of
unemployment. Because firms may not consider it cost-
effective to retrain some types of workers , notably the less-
educated and older employees, these workers may be jobless
for long periods of time, with some of them perhaps never
working again.
• If technological change causes workers to become
unemployed more often and for longer periods of time, not
only will the level of unemployment increase, but the "natural
rate of unemployment," the hypothesized minimum
sustainable rate of unemployment, will increase as well.

12. • Technology both eliminates jobs and creates jobs.
• Generally it destroys lower wage, lower productivity
jobs, while it creates jobs that are more
productive, high-skill and better paid.
• Virtually all types of technological change result in
increases in the demand for labor in some labor
markets and decreases in the demand for labor in
other labor markets
• The introduction of assembly line production methods
and the production of interchangeable parts resulted in
increase in the demand for unskilled workers and
decrease for skilled artisans. But introduction of
automated manufacturing processes, has resulted in a
decrease in the demand for unskilled workers and an
increase in the demand for quality control technicians
and computer programmers.

13. • The story goes that Milton Friedman was once taken to
see a massive government project somewhere in Asia.
Thousands of workers using shovels were building a
canal. Friedman was puzzled. Why weren't there any
excavators or any mechanized earth-moving
equipment? A government official explained that using
shovels created more jobs. Friedman's response: "Then
why not use spoons instead of shovels?"
• That story came to mind last week when President
Obama linked technology to job losses. "There are
some structural issues with our economy where a lot of
businesses have learned to become much more
efficient with a lot fewer workers," he said. "You see it
when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don't
go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you're
using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate."

14. How technology affects workers?
• Lower Level, Low Skill workers:
– replaced by technology
– find it hard to survive in the workplace
• These workers, such as factory workers, people in the service
sector and others performing labor-intensive, low-skill
tasks, are perhaps the most affected by the changing nature
of work. The introduction of new technology has effectively
eliminated their role in the workplace. As computers and
machines are quickly replacing them in the workplace, these
individuals are finding it harder and harder to maintain
employment.
• bank tellers are being replaced by ATM machines; gasoline
station attendants are no longer as needed with the
installation of new credit-card accepting pumps, secretaries
are being replaced by computerized answering machines.

15. • Middle Management workers:
– become expendable
– must re-train to survive in the workplace
• The middle management consists of those workers
or managers involved in the coordination, processing
and researching of information and activities.
However, new computer technology such as
databases, e-mail and the Internet has greatly
reduced the need for or changed the responsibilities
of these individuals, placing their job security at risk.
• But individuals are usually higher-educated than
lower level workers and thus find it much easier to
re-train themselves--often learning themselves how
to use the technology that replaced them--to survive
in the new technological workplace.

16. • High Management workers:
– have more decisions to make
– have more work to do
– benefit from greater profits
• Unlike lower level and middle level workers, high
management workers are not as adversely
affected by the changing nature of work. The job
security of high management workers is rarely
placed at risk: the high management is in charge
of deciding what technology will be used and
how; it is unlikely that they will choose to use
technology that will eliminate their own jobs.

17. • However, this does not mean that their jobs are not affected
at all. With the changing nature of work, high management
workers are faced with two new problems. Firstly, they now
must make decisions in regards to either investing resources
and money in new technology, thus firing workers, or favoring
workers over new technology. Such decisions cannot be taken
lightly; new technology can be very costly and not necessarily
more effective.
• Secondly, with the elimination of middle management and
lower level workers because of new technology, high
management workers are essentially given more work. Not
only does the high management have more decisions to
make, but also someone must run or supervise the new
technology. In many instances, high management must
compensate for the loss of middle and lower level workers by
doing their jobs, with the help of the new technology.
Although the new technology does make the work easier and
quicker, it nevertheless increases the workload of these
individuals.

18. High-Skill, Technical-Skilled Workers:
• more opportunities in the workplace
• greater demand for their skills
• Finally, the computerization of the workplace has
increased the demand for and opportunities of a
distinct class of workers- the high-skilled,
technical-skilled individuals. This group of
workers include the people who create and
maintain the new technologies being
implemented in the work environment, those
who develop, implement and repair the
computer technology as well as those who act as
consultants and give companies advice on how to
maximize the benefits of newly acquired
technology.

19. • These individuals perhaps enjoy the most benefit
out of the changing nature of the workplace.
• The increased use of technology in the work
environment has increased their value, making
them a highly regarded commodity in the
workplace. Individuals who are computer literate
and have significant technical skills are now in
high demand.
• Having technical abilities is a huge advantage in
the job market; companies would rather hire an
individual who can administrate and work with
computers instead of hiring two people to do
both tasks.
• These workers receive higher pay and greater job
stability.

20. RESULT
The effects and consequences of the changing
nature of work on individual workers can be
summarized into three main points:
1) A dichotomy between workers has been created
With the introduction of new technology and the
computerization of the workplace, low skill and
middle management workers are finding
themselves more and more expendable while
high management workers and high-skilled
workers are reaping the benefits. As the nature of
work continues to change with the advent of new
technology, this separation between the classes
will continue to grow.

21. 2) Work has become more technical-focused
Technical skills and abilities are in high demand. In order for
the individual to find and maintain employment, it is
imperative that the individual be trained in the use of the
computer and other new technology. Survival and success in
the workplace is now determined by this education and
knowledge.
3) While the overall trend is marked by significant economic
growth and prosperity, this progress has come at the expense
of many individuals.
Machines and computers have come to take the place of
millions of laborers all over the world. The increasing
automatization of the workplace has led to unemployment.