False Choice Between Automation and Jobs

On Automation vs Jobs.  We are seeing the need for some adaptation.  Well put, in the HBR.  What we need to consider:

The False Choice Between Automation and Jobs   

By:  James Manyikais the San Francisco-based director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the business and economics research arm of McKinsey & Company.  and

Michael Spence a Nobel laureate in economics, is Professor of Economics at NYU’s Stern School of Business.  ...

" ... First, a much sharper focus on skills and training. That means reversing the trend of declining government spending on training that is apparent in many OECD countries. It also means a stepped-up role for companies, which will be on the front line of automation adoption and will know better and faster which skills are required.

Second, we should take another look at making the labor market more fluid, including by more active use of digital technologies for job matching and for stimulating the rise of independent work. In fact, the dynamism of labor markets is waning: in the United States, for example, the job reallocation rate dropped by 25% between 1990 and 2013, and the share of workers relocating across state lines annually has fallen by half, to close to 1.5%.

Government, businesses, educational institutions, and labor organizations need to collaborate to ensure that incumbents and new entrants to the labor market have accurate forward-looking knowledge of the evolving mix of skill and experience requirements.

The third priority should be a reevaluation of income and transition support to help displaced workers or those struggling with transitions to new occupations. Germany set an example here by revamping its labor agency and putting an emphasis on acquiring skills. Its labor participation rate has risen by 10 percentage points since reunification, to above the U.S. level. ... "