What Me Worry? Most Americans Not Concerned about the Impacts of Technology on Jobs. Work Trends

• Published in: John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development
• Main Authors: Van Horn, Carl, Starace, Jessica
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: John J 01.10.2018
• Subjects: Automation; Dislocated Workers; Employment Patterns; Employment Problems; Influence of Technology; Job Skills; Labor Force; Labor Turnover; Public Opinion; Technological Advancement; Trend Analysis; Work Attitudes

Advanced software, smartphones, the Internet, and cognitive computing have already disrupted the retail, media, transportation, education, and health care industries. Widely different predictions have been offered about the scope of future workforce disruptions. Recent assessments about the impact of artificial intelligence on worker dislocation range from the prediction by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that 9% of jobs will disappear in the next two decades, to a World Economic Forum report that technology could create over 50 million net jobs by 2022. On the other end of spectrum is the shocking analysis of Oxford University scholars, who concluded that nearly half of current jobs will vanish. The John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development's recent survey of a nationally representative sample of 827 Americans finds that less than a majority of the public (43%) perceive that technology is a major threat to American workers. Far more respondents found corporate decision-makers' plans to move jobs to other countries (64%) and the government in Washington (50%) as greater threats to the economic future of working Americans. The majority of Americans in the labor force today say they have not been personally affected by technology in the workplace. This report explores why most Americans are not very concerned about the impact of technology and also why Americans with limited formal education are fearful that they will be left behind by rapid technological-driven changes.