The Automated Workforce: The Future of Work and the Social Safety Net

During the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, presidential candidates invested a lot of time in talking about the impact of trade policies and outsourcing. Many economists, however, point out that it’s likely that automation will have a greater effect on our economy than globalization. In fact, according to the New York Times, “nine in ten jobs that disappeared since 2000 were lost to automation … not to workers in other countries.” In the coming decades, many of our largest job markets across the world – including the trucking and taxi industries – are on track to be replaced or, at very least, seriously impacted by automation. A report from McKinsey posits that “half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055.” These are changes that are happening faster than anyone predicted a decade ago. While technology will create opportunity for new, high-paying jobs and require alternative education and training programs, policy makers have also begun talking about how our social safety net will need to adapt.