Negative Effects of Advancing Technology on Employment

[Coleman Smith]

Well I am not anti-technology. It is interesting how technology has had an adverse effect on employment in the field that I was employed in for the longest period of time. I was a staff member, supervisor and claim manager for a large Independent Insurance adjusting firm.

Examples of technology that have reduced the need need for staff are as follows:

The use of drones to inspect roofs.

The use of satellite imagery to estimate the cost of replacement for roofs without the need of personal inspections.

The use of satellite imagery ( Google Earth) to photograph intersections for reports and eliminating the need for an adjuster to go to the accident scene photograph of the intersection.

The development of widespread use of photographs and cell phones.

Previously the insurance companies had to request that an adjuster take photographs of damage to buildings and vehicles. Now the company can request that the insured or claimant use their cell phone to make photographs of the damage to a building or a vehicle and just email it to them.

The tendency of many insurance companies to use approved body shops for repairs which eliminates the need for an appraiser to see the vehicle. this says reduced the appraisal staff.

We used to dictate our reports and send the electronic copy of the dictation off to a transcription service in another state where it was transcribed and then mailed back to us. because of advancing technology and transcription you can now dictate to your computer as I am doing with this post. This reduces the number of employees who work at the transcription Center

Paperless files have reduced the need for file clerks and makes the files accessible by multiple parties at remote locations..

I suppose that this development affects other people using recorded statements including the police.

The office that I used to work at in the area where I live at one time had a staff of 55 and I believe they now have a staff of two working out of their homes.

I believe that truck drivers may be eliminated by driverless trucks at some point in the future and the same will happen to cab drivers.

I am sure members can give many other examples.

 

[Shadowy Man]

So, if the population is increasing and unemployment is going down while jobs are being replaced by technology, where are all these extra people working?

 

[Coleman Smith]

So, if the population is increasing and unemployment is going down while jobs are being replaced by technology, where are all these extra people working?

Good Point.

I only know about the industry that I worked in.

 

[steve_bank]

Agriculture used to be the biggest employer. The first tractors ad an impact on emolument.

When the industrial revolution started people migrated to cities.

The computer and the MS office suite eliminated whole classes of skilled and semiskilled labor.

In electrical and mechanical engineering the skilled drafting profession was largely emanated. Commuter tools allowed individual engineers to make their own drawings.

Documentation departments eliminated by servers.

You can look up where the employment is. A lot of it is in what is euphemistically called the service industry. Hotels, restaurants, bars, coffee shops.

What used to be jobs that did not supply a li9vng wage for people who did not need to make it now are relied on to support a family.

The democrats lost the election in large part because they were tome deaf to the economy. Biden kept saying 'he was creating a lot of jobs. The economy is greater than its ever been.

Yet more and more people are complaining they can not make enough to make ends meet.

Labor is subject to supply and damned. During the 90s .com boom students switched from electrical engineering to computer science thinking they would get rich. Supply of electrical engineers went down and salaries went up.
When the boom went bust a CS degree was not worth much.

Immigration has always served to keep wages at the bottom down. The old manufacturing jobs employed a lot of immigrants.


Biden and now Trump is saying we will bring manufacturing back from China. The probelm is with factory automation it is not going to make a significant change in employment and wages.

 

[bilby]

So, if the population is increasing and unemployment is going down while jobs are being replaced by technology, where are all these extra people working?

In lower paid jobs, apparently.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/08/robots_crush_career_low_skill/

 

[Swammerdami]

Well I am not anti-technology. It is interesting how technology has had an adverse effect ...

When I saw this, I immediately guessed that "While" was intended for "Well" (and comma for full stop) and that ...

... you can now dictate to your computer as I am doing with this post.

What do I win?

As for the replacement of human labor with machines, I do not know what to think about that. (And anyway my views should be rejected perhaps since I tend to be a little bit like a  Luddite!)

This progress (or problem) is less in low-wage countries. I have interacted with the Thai Immigration bureau this month; Monday I will make a 4th (and final?) visit; the bureau has several dozen employees most of whom could be replaced with a McDonalds-style kiosk! [/slight exaggeration] This extra 4th trip is needed because neither of two sub-offices could access the records of a third sub-office just a few meters away!

But I've had only friendly encounters with Thai Immigration. Gas stations here still often wash the windows. Et cetera. Inefficient ... but it all brings back pleasant memories of the mid 20th century.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The buggy manufacturers would like to join this conversation.

 

[Coleman Smith]

Some of the things that have made my job much easier than they were when I first started out in the claims industry are electronic maps. originally I spent a lot of time looking at paper maps and then asking people for directions.

Cell phones are a big improvement from the days when we used to use coin phones.

We used to have to go to the courthouse to see if a person had a criminal background. this information is now online. We may still have to go to the courthouse to get a copy of the file but in some instances you can download a copy of the file.

I spent a lot of time in the office looking for paper files that have been misplaced for one reason or another. Now that the files are electronic they're always available by fingertips and can be seen simultaneously by people in distant locations and stuff with a period this is because the files are on a server.

Now for some humor.

one of my first jobs was working for a phone company collecting coins from coin phones. talk about a job with no future.!

I remember watching a black and white addition of Dragnet and which lead detective said to his partner Joe Friday, “ We need to call this in.”

Friday agreed with him so they walked over to a coin phone dropped a nickel at it and call the information in the headquarters.

 

[Coleman Smith]

The buggy manufacturers would like to join this conversation.

Actually, there are employed buggy manufacturers in some states where the Amish are present.