Workers used to earn about two-thirds of the income their labor generates. Now, it's just over half.

Apr 12, 2024
The stat, called labor share of national income, is being squeezed by globalization, declining union membership and automation.
Even though workers' slice of the pie is shrinking, the U.S. economy is growing, so they're getting a smaller slice of a bigger pie.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Thanks to AI, more U.S. workers worry that technology threatens their jobs

Sep 11, 2023
In the past, technology has displaced jobs but the economy has continually created new ones. Some experts see greater losses this time.
Many college-educated workers are anxious about the potential for their jobs to be automated, a new Gallup poll finds.
Guillaume/Getty Images

AI lessons from the telephone operators of the 1920s

Aug 17, 2023
In the early 20th century, thousands of young women worked as telephone switchboard operators. Automation changed that.
If you were a working woman in the early 20th century, there's a good chance you were a telephone operator — until mechanical switching took over the job.
-/AFP via Getty Images

Artificial intelligence will impact workplaces and cost some workers their jobs

Jul 27, 2023
A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute says some will lose their jobs and low-wage workers are the most likely to be hit.
Lower-paid jobs, like those in food service, are more likely to disappear because of AI and automation. Some already have.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Hotels and restaurants have had trouble hiring, so they innovated

Jul 17, 2023
That’s meant automating some tasks once done by humans and thinking carefully about the humans they do hire.
After two summers of worker shortages on Cape Cod, some restaurant and hotel owners have become more efficient, "enabling them to operate with a smaller staff,” the Beige Book says.
Tim Graham/Getty Images

Are we expected to tip robots now?

Jun 1, 2023
Replacing face-to-face service interactions with automation could change American tipping culture.
A loss of face-to-face tipped interactions, often replaced by self-checkout or automated transactions, could change our culture of tipping.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

How AI true believers are preparing for an economic revolution

May 5, 2023
For some who think artificial intelligence will rapidly transform society, saving for or staying in college feel pointless. So do 401(k)s.
Office workers in the metaverse. Joshua Clymer of the Center for AI Safety thinks there’s a high chance that artificial intelligence will replace most jobs in the next 20 years.
XH4D/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

In California’s Inland Empire, the warehousing industry’s growth comes with consequences

Apr 19, 2023
Many worry that the industry’s growth has put the local environment and economy at risk.
Above, a massive processing and distribution center in Los Angeles.  Warehouses have boomed in California’s Inland Empire over the past decade thanks to the growth of online shopping.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

How does a manufacturer for manufacturers view today's economy?

Feb 15, 2023
Blake Moret, chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation, says that the manufacturing sector remains strong despite a recent slowdown.
For Rockwell Automation head Blake Moret, the manufacturing sector is remaining strong thanks to order backlogs and government funding from legislation passed during Biden's presidency.
Eric Piermont/AFP via Getty Images

As jobs become more automated, how will workers adjust?

Chris Farrell says that while workers may not see massive job losses, technology will alter the mix of jobs and needed worker skills.
"Don't fear the march of the robots, but worry instead that too many workers will be left to their own devices in dealing with massive job changes driven by automation," says Chris Farrell, Marketplace's senior economics contributor.
Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP