AI and Jobs

 

In Bridgeport Connecticut, manufacturing has come back. Great right? Yes it has but not the way Trump wanted. He thought bringing manufacturing back would bring with it jobs. That is backwards 1950's thinking. Because it hasn't.

“These newer, successful manufacturing companies in Bridgeport don’t have assembly lines with workers performing repetitive tasks. They have high-skilled workers meeting exacting specifications for a relatively small number of picky customers,” said the Post. “That’s what most American manufacturing firms look like today. Ninety-eight percent of U.S. manufacturing firms employ fewer than 500 people, and 93 percent employ fewer than 100, according to 2022 data.”

The “manufacturing” jobs actually employ more robots than anything, per the Post's editorial. Automation makes them extremely productive, and more productive workers are paid more, but it still means fewer people work in manufacturing than in the past.

Pay attention to what is going on. If manufacturers are coming back to the U.S to build new plants, then they are going to build with an eye to the future, not the past. Automation takes costs people jobs. Those machines don't need a break, they don't require a day off, and they don't pay the employee. The cost of labor in a manufacturing process is said to be in excess of 40%. To automate, is to save at least one third of the manufacturing cost. Vertical integration, and manufacturing efficiency is what brings down the cost of manufacturing and thus the cost of the consumer product. Henry Ford proved that over a century ago. So here we are, at the dawn of AI. Automation in production, whether it be in manufacturing or any of the other sectors, has been around for over a century. What makes AI different, is that computers and robots will become more sophisticated, and complex. To the point that less human interaction in manufacturing will be needed. The high paying job of my uncle at B.F. Goodrich operating a machine, with a high school diploma, is giving way to his grandson operating a computer that is running numerous robots. Technology has advanced us as a society past the high school diploma as a gateway to personal economic prosperity. The need for advanced technical training, and education will replace people like my uncle.

My generation, Gen X, is lucky that we are, and will be, retiring from the workforce in the next decade. We won't have to deal with totally changing our vocation, at an advanced age, in order to stay relevant, and marketable in an ever evolving job market. Below is a link to the article for transparency.

 Trump is pointlessly trying to resurrect jobs that 'aren't coming back': Washington Post

 

The solution is to evolve vocationally with advancing technology. Technology is going to advance. In the 1920's technology advanced about every 20 years. in The 1950's technology advanced every 10 years. In the 1970's technology advanced every 5 years. In the 1990's and 2000's it advanced every year. Today, technology advances every 3 to 6 months, give or take. Individuals in today's job market must have a eye on technology, because it feeds off of entrepreneurs, and private business, and that fuels the job market. They all are connected. As long as there has been free enterprise, entrepreneurs, and technology have connected in a synergistic bond, the feed off of each other, and they need each other.