Information technology Quote by Anonymous
““In the past decade, the historically consistent division in the United States between the share of total national income going to labor and that going to physical capital seems to have changed significantly. As the economists Susan Fleck, John Glaser, and Shawn Sprague noted in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Monthly Labor Review in 2011, “Labor share averaged 64.3 percent from 1947 to 2000. Labor share has declined over the past decade, falling to its lowest point in the third quarter of 2010, 57.8 percent.” Recent moves to “re-shore” production from overseas, including Apple’s decision to produce its new Mac Pro computer in Texas, will do little to reverse this trend. For in order to be economically viable, these new domestic manufacturing facilities will need to be highly automated. Other countries are witnessing similar trends. The economists Loukas Karabarbounis and Brent Neiman have documented significant declines in labor’s share of GDP in 42 of the 59 countries they studied, including China, India, and Mexico. In describing their findings, Karabarbounis and Neiman are explicit that progress in digital technologies is an important driver of this phenomenon: “The decrease in the relative price of investment goods, often attributed to advances in information technology and the computer age, induced firms to shift away from labor and toward capital. The lower price of investment goods explains roughly half of the observed decline in the labor share.””
About This Quote
Source Article: Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011
The labor share of income is falling worldwide as automation and cheaper capital replace workers, and reshoring will not reverse this trend.
In simple terms: Automation reduces workers’ share of income.
Focus on policies that protect workers in an automated economy.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- policy making
- business strategy
- education and workforce planning
- social safety net design
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How can societies ensure fair income distribution as automation rises?
- What policies can mitigate labor share decline?
Automation may increase productivity but can exacerbate inequality without supportive measures.