THE RISE OF ROBOTS! EFFECTS ON EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME

Disruptive technological advances will have profound impacts on the employment landscape over the years to come. As in the past, new technologies will change the way humans live and work. Some occupations will become obsolete, while new occupations will emerge. Consequently, people will be displaced from some occupations, be forced to require new skills so that they can work in new occupations. Although the introduction of new technologies –robotization– has many dimensions, its effects will range from structural unemployment to distribution of labor income. The first question would be what will be the impact of new technologies on labor demand? Given that new technologies expectedly increase productivity, hence income, the second question would be how the raise be distributed between low and high skilled labor. Hence, this study focuses on the effects of robotization on the structural unemployment, its implications on labor demand and its income distribution effects. I review the current situation of robotization, and make recommendations to policy makers and corporate managers to get prepared for accelerating robotization and not only to mitigate its potential adverse effects on employment and income distribution, but also to take this as an opportunity to increase the quality of life for all