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.

David Autor: Will automation take away all our jobs?

Will automation take away all our jobs?

Automated tellers doubled bank teller jobs by shifting roles from transactional to relational, highlighting tech's complex job impact.

The O-ring theory illustrates how automation elevates the value of human skills in tasks it cannot replace, enhancing job significance.

Despite fears of obsolescence, human ingenuity and insatiable desires ensure the continual creation of new labor markets and jobs.

MIT School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative

MIT Inclusive Innovation Competition

MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy

Manufacturing USA

technology

business

economics

collaboration

innovation

social change

history

work

humanity

society

productivity

TEDx

agriculture

behavioral economics

farming

manufacturing

TEDx Talk