BSOM046 - The Future of Work: A Review of Technological Unemployment

This literature review examines the concept of technological unemployment from its inception to the present day, charting its development alongside technological advancements like nanotechnology, AI, and robotics. It discusses the historical perspectives, including Schumpeter's creative destruction theory, and explores concerns about job displacement and the potential for technology to replace both routine and complex tasks. The review also addresses the ongoing debate about whether technology creates more jobs than it eliminates, referencing the Luddite fallacy and the economic theory that new industries will emerge. Ultimately, the review considers a future where both blue-collar and white-collar jobs may be significantly altered or replaced by machines, emphasizing the need for continued analysis of technology's impact on the labor market. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources for students.

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Managerial operations and supply chain
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Literature review
Introduction
In this literature review it is about the development of the concept of technological
unemployment from its inception to the present day. As the technological innovations, for
example nanotechnology, AI and robotics advancement, the workers experiences the prospect to
becoming revolutionized Brandesand Wattenhofer, 2016). Since the inception as there have been
growth and development of the technology, it has been feasible that neither the capitalism nor the
communism could be required, as the economic landscape could be revolutionized (Brandesand
Wattenhofer, 2016). Technological innovation continues to be growing substantially by the
years, which has consumed more and more jobs. Even though it has produced numerous jobs, it
has also absorbed a lot more than it might produce (Berger and Frey, 2016). In 1942, Economist
Joseph Schumpeter unveiled the concept creative destruction which he articulated on the
disruptive transformation which result from the technological innovations could stall on the
economic growth (Berger and Frey, 2016). Every since there has already been an intensive
literature that has been focused on the prospective impact to the technological innovations that
were developed with the sole intent behind cost saving, through the reduction of the waste,
increase in the capacity to equipment relative to the price (Berger and Frey, 2016). There are
some of the economists who have raised some concerns in regards to the labour impacts of the
technological innovations, which could include massive human labour job replacement as well as
the rise in the unemployment (Berger and Frey, 2016). According to Brandes and Wattenhofer
(2016), argued that the advancement in the technology would leave behind some individuals.
There are others who have argued that technological innovation might lead to more middle skills
jobs that could incorporate routine technical tasks and non-routine tasks which involves

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interpersonal, problem solving together with versatility simply because they replace on the
traditional labor intensive, sole routine duties (Cang, 2017). The current researchers they have
got investigated on the relationship between unemployment and technological innovations on to
the microeconomic level for example industry level there is certainly need to the macroeconomic
analysis which should be fulfilled to the present literature (Cang, 2017).
Over the years technology has changed over the years, there are many individuals who are losing
employment for instance, the bank tellers are going into extinct as the ATMs precede their fall
(Dominici, Roblek and Lombardi, 2016). The cashiers they are being obsolete as the self
checkout stations that are utilizing significant retailers they are saving a lot more money (Cang,
2017). According to the future of the employment there are numerous jobs which would become
computerized (Nica, 2016). This would be possible due to technology, for instance, in the 1790,
ninety percent of the Americans they were farmers, and currently only two percent offer the
bread for the USA due to the large mechanization of the agriculture (Dominici, Roblek and
Lombardi, 2016). Furthermore, much more teachers they may be being replaced by the online
applications. Based on an Oxford report it includes recommended that 47% of the US jobs these
are vulnerable to the computerization by 2020 (Nica, 2016). Nevertheless, this report has
presumed that some of the jobs are impervious to the computerization for example, the surgeons,
abuse counselors, event planners in addition to fashion designers (Hirsch-Kreinsen , 2016 ) .
Furthermore, within this report it does not take into some account unprecedented improvement in
the technology, as then computer processing power which boosts each 18 months (Hirsch-
Kreinsen, 2016). Currently the globe has attained an area of the uncontrolled and unlimited
technology improvement. The world is at the brink of developing technology that is innovative
technology that can advance and build itself (Nica, 2016). The jobs which are currently being

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consumed they have included more complex jobs for instance, journalist, lawyer, driver, and
sociologist. Moreover, possibly the process of the discovery is being computerized that have
integrated the recognition in the biological sciences (Nica, 2016). Ever since the dawn of the
industrialized revolution, there has been comparable fear that most the jobs could be lost to the
machines (Hirsch-Kreinsen, 2016). For the past one hundred years, this continues to be
considered a logical fallacy that has termed Luddite fallacy after the group of the English textile
workers that smashed machines to be able to preserve the jobs (Nica, 2016). Presently, the
economic theory emphasizes that the jobs that are consumed by the technology could be
recreated in the new industries (Nica, 2016). The rise in the productivity would certainly lead to
the price drop especially to the corresponding products and hence enables the customers to
purchase a few of the other merchandise.
Conclusion
It is possible that the world would attain a future wherein labour white collar and blue collar
alike could not exist in the sense with which we are acquainted today. The machine could
accomplish all kinds of the labour, even the innovative elements. Within this literature review, it
has pointed out on the progression of the idea of technological unemployment from its
establishment until to the modern day.

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References
Brandes, P. and Wattenhofer, R., 2016. Opening the Frey/Osborne black box: Which tasks of a
job are susceptible to computerization?.arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.08823.
Berger, T. and Frey, C.B., 2016. Did the Computer Revolution shift the fortunes of US cities?
Technology shocks and the geography of new jobs.Regional Science and Urban Economics, 57,
pp.38-45.
Cang, Y., 2017. A Deep Dive into Technological Unemployment: A State-Level Analysis on the
Employment Effect of Technological Innovations. Accessed At:
http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2666&context=cmc_theses
Dominici, G., Roblek, V. and Lombardi, R., 2016. A holistic approach to comprehending the
complexity of the post-growth era: the emerging profile. In Chaos, Complexity and Leadership
2014 (pp. 29-42).Springer, Cham.
Hirsch-Kreinsen, H., 2016. Digitization of industrial work: development paths and
prospectsDigitalisierungindustriellerArbeit: Entwicklungspfade und Perspektiven. Journal for
Labour Market Research, 49(1), pp.1-14.
Nica, E., 2016. Will technological unemployment and workplace automation generate greater
capital-labor income imbalances?.Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 11(4), p.68.