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Will automation take away all our jobs?

1,954,555 views |

David Autor |

TEDxCambridge

• September 2016

Here's a paradox you don't hear much about: despite a century of creating machines to do our work for us, the proportion of adults in the US with a job has consistently gone up for the past 125 years. Why hasn't human labor become redundant and our skills obsolete? In this talk about the future of work, economist David Autor addresses the question of why there are still so many jobs and comes up with a surprising, hopeful answer.

Here's a paradox you don't hear much about: despite a century of creating machines to do our work for us, the proportion of adults in the US with a job has consistently gone up for the past 125 years. Why hasn't human labor become redundant and our skills obsolete? In this talk about the future of work, economist David Autor addresses the question of why there are still so many jobs and comes up with a surprising, hopeful answer.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCambridge, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

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About the speaker

David Autor

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David Autor's work assesses the labor market consequences of technological change and globalization.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News, 2016 | Article

"3 Questions: David Autor on global trade and political polarization: Study finds relationship between U.S. job losses due to trade, and political polarization in Congress"

Nelson D. Schwartz and Quoctrung Bui | New York Times, 2016 | Article

"Where Jobs Are Squeezed by Chinese Trade, Voters Seek Extremes"

Binyamin Appelbaum, Patricia Cohen and Jack Healy | New York Times, 2016 | Article

"A Rebounding Economy Remains Fragile for Many"

Peter Dizikes | MIT News, 2016 | Article

"Trading places: Economists take a new look at the evidence that the U.S. has lost millions of jobs to China"

Peter Dizikes | MIT News, 2016 | Article

"Q&A: David Autor on inequality among the '99 percent': In new Science piece, MIT economist aims to move the inequality discussion beyond the '1 percent.'"

Peter Dizikes, | MIT News, 2013 | Article

"Polarized labor market leaving more employees in service jobs. Study: U.S. job market is putting more workers in positions with limited upside and leverage"

David H. Autor, David Dorn, | and Gordon H. Hanson Annual Review of Economics, 2016 | Article

"The China Shock: Learning from Labor-Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade"

David H. Autor | Science, 2014 | Article

"Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the 'other 99 percent'"

Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the "other 99 percent."

David H. Autor | Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2015 | Article

"Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation "

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCambridge, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.