The future impact of automation on workers

• Main Author: Leontief, Wassily W. 1906- (Author)
• Other Authors: Duchin, Faye 1944-
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: New York Oxford University Press 1986; ©1986
• Subjects: Labor supply > Effect of technological innovations on > Mathematical models > United States; Employment forecasting > Mathematical models > United States; Input-output tables > United States
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Physical Description: xiii, 170 pages illustrations 25 cm
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographies and index.
• ISBN: 0195036239; 9780195036237

While the computer revolution has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs, it has threatened as many other jobs with obsolescence and has often caused the displacement of workers by computer-based machines. Here, Nobel Prize-winning economist Wassily Leontief and Faye Duchin use the input-output approach, a method that has been widely applied in examining structural economic change, to analyze the complex issues surrounding the impact of computer-driven automation on employment. Following a general discussion of the impact of automation on employment, they focus on four specific sectors within the economy--manufacturing, office work, education, and health care. The input-output approach makes it possible to draw conclusions regarding both overall employment and the prospects for individual occupations. Taking account of the increased need for workers in the production of computer-based equipment, the authors conclude that by the year 2000 automation will not cause dramatic unemployment if the economy is able to achieve a smooth transition from the old to new technologies.