Robots Are Taking Some Jobs, But Not All: World Bank

Some Amazon stores have no cashiers, and Waymo is testing self-driving taxis. Are robots taking our jobs? It depends on what you do and where you do it, according to a new report by the World Bank released this week. From a report: 'Advanced economies have shed industrial jobs, but the rise of the industrial sector in East Asia has more than compensated for this loss,' said the report, titled 'The Changing Nature of Work.' That may seem like good news in a broad sense, but not to the people whose jobs are disappearing. Technological advances and automation are making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

'Workers in some sectors benefit handsomely from technological progress, whereas those in others are displaced and have to retool to survive,' the report said. 'Platform technologies create huge wealth but place it in the hands of only a few people.' The World Bank recommends a new social contract that includes investment in education and retraining. Would that help American workers? 'Policy-makers in Washington may have talked about the need to better prepare lower-skilled workers for the future transition, but little has been done,' Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, said Thursday.

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