Technology and the Job Market

12.4.3 Discuss wage differences among jobs and professions, using the

laws of demand and supply and the concept of productivity.

What is technology?

1. the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization.

2. the total knowledge and skills available to any human society for industry, art, science, etc

3. A device or process that enables, cheapens, or simplifies the production of a good or service.

Technology & Job Markets

• Technological innovation has the power both to create and to destroy jobs.

• Generally speaking, creating new products creates jobs, whereas improving old processes destroys jobs*.

• On the macroeconomic scale, technology should only create greater total prosperity.

Technology Creates Jobs

• It might seem obvious, but new technology often creates jobs.

• For instance, when the television was invented, it created a demand for various types of labor, from manufacturing and engineering to acting and writing, to installation and repair.

Technology Destroys Jobs!

• In most cases, new technology is created to replace something that already exists.

• For instance, innovations automated manufacturing sometimes replace the need for lots of factory workers.

• Other times, new inventions like centralized heating replace the need wood/coal fires, and therefore eliminate the need for chimney sweepers.

Structural Unemployment

• The type of unemployment that occurs when one’s skills and abilities do not match the needs of ones surroundings.

• This is the term economists use for somebody whose once-useful skills have become obsolete.

• John Henry vs. Steam Drill

Microeconomic Perspective

• From the view of any one industry, new technology could easily be seen as negative or positive, depending.

• For instance, night clubs lost the majority of their markets to television, radio, and movie theatres.

• A night club owner might claim that television was destroying the job market for entertainers.

Macroeconomic Perspective

• Human wants and needs have remained basically stable for our entire history:

• We want nutrition, clothing, shelter, health, transportation, and entertainment.

• Any new technology will be used for one or more of these six purposes.

• For a new technology to become popular, it must be more efficient

Macroecon. Perspective (2)

• More efficient processes in one area free up more resources for other areas.

• “Job loss” in one industry means everyone will have more resources left over to spend on other industries.

• Therefore, society as a whole always profits from new technology, even if some individuals suffer.

Social Perspective

• Sometimes, people use more than GDP growth to measure whether something is good for society.

• New technologies are the main reason why societies change over time.

• Refrigerators• Contraceptives• Television• The internet