We are in the early stages of a shift from “mass labor” to highly skilled “elite labor,” accompanied by increasing automation in the production of goods and the delivery of services. Sophisticated computers, robots, telecommunications, and other Information Age technologies are replacing human beings in nearly every sector. Factory workers, secretaries, receptionists, clerical workers, salesclerks, bank tellers, telephone operators, librarians, wholesalers, and middle managers are just a few of the many occupations destined for virtual extinction. In the United States alone, as many as 90 million jobs in a labor force of 124 million are potentially vulnerable to displacement by automation.
Predictor: Rifkin, Jeremy
Prediction, in context:The 1997 book “Computers, Ethics, and Society,” edited by M. David Ermann, Mary B. Williams and Michele S. Shauf, carries a reprint of the 1995 Mother Jones magazine article “Will There Be a Job for Me in the New Information Age?” by Jeremy Rifkin. Rifkin suggests that the Information Age is fundamentally transforming the American economy. He writes: ”The hard reality is that the global economy is in the midst of a transformation as significant as the Industrial Revolution. We are in the early stages of a shift from ‘mass labor’ to highly skilled ‘elite labor,’ accompanied by increasing automation in the production of goods and the delivery of services. Sophisticated computers, robots, telecommunications, and other Information Age technologies are replacing human beings in nearly every sector. Factory workers, secretaries, receptionists, clerical workers, salesclerks, bank tellers, telephone operators, librarians, wholesalers, and middle managers are just a few of the many occupations destined for virtual extinction. In the United States alone, as many as 90 million jobs in a labor force of 124 million are potentially vulnerable to displacement by automation.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Employment
Name of publication: Computers, Ethics, and Society (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Will There Be a Job for Me in the New Information Age?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 123, 124
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne