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Employment skills for the robot age*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

D.A. Bell
D.A. Bell
Affiliation:
Electronic Engineering Department, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX (U.K.) (Retired)
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Extract

Increasing productivity in manufacturing industry leads to a continuing shift in the balance between employment in ‘productive’ and in ‘service’ industries, the latter providing more employment at present in a ratio of about 70:30. This paper is primarily concerned with employment in manufacturing industry. Some have seen automation as a means of de-skilling jobs, but there is evidence of a gradual ‘upward’ shift of skill requirements in manufacturing industry: the unskilled workers are being eliminated and the skilled manual workers replaced by technicians with mental skills. This introduces the need for re-training and raises the question whether one can have a society in which there are no unskilled persons.

Type
Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , April 1985 , pp. 93 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1Holderness, B.A., Pre-Industrial England (Dent, London, 1976) pp. 35–36.Google Scholar
2Tables I and 11 are based on Tables 10 and 14 in ref. 5.Google Scholar
3Bell, D.A., ‘The economic background of automation’ Proceedings of the International Conference on Automation, Paris, 06 18–24, 1956 pp. 564–574.Google Scholar
4Drucker, P., ‘The next American work force’ Economic Commentary (National Council for Economic Development, Washington D.C., 10 1981) pp. 3–10.Google Scholar
5Bell, D.A., Employment in the Age of Drastic Change (Abacus Press, Tunbridge Wells, U.K., 1984).Google Scholar
6Choate, P., Retooling the American Work Force (Northeast-Midwest Institute, Washington D.C., 1982).Google Scholar