White Collar Jobs: The Robots Are Coming For Them

A bit of SEO in the headline. Of course robots are not coming for white collar jobs.

But software is.

This is something that is not much of a secret at this point, or at least it should not be. However, there are still some who insist that technology will, once again, create more jobs than it destroys.

An article in the New York Times seems to believe this is not necessarily the case.


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To start, people are completely unprepared for what is taking place. One of the reasons for this is that it is being hidden from them. We all heard the mantra from executives in the press that we are entering an age where people will work side-by-side with technology.

This is a complete misdirection.

It was rhetoric spewed to appease the workers. After all, management learned about the backlash when jobs were being outsourced a couple decades back. Thus, if they keep the reality of the situation quiet, workers might go along as if nothing is wrong.

COVID-19 did give the corporations some cover. Since the pandemic hit, the pace which automation is being implemented picked up. There is less need to be sly about it.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a task automating process. The idea is not that jobs are replaced, just tasks that are redundant in nature. However, when enough of these are compiled, a job can be replaced.

In fact, the headlines regarding RPA often do not tell the entire story. This is how RPA firms tout their successes:

“Sprint Automates 50 Business Processes In Just Six Months.” (Possible translation: Sprint replaced 300 people in the billing department.)

“Dai-ichi Life Insurance Saves 132,000 Hours Annually” (Bye-bye, claims adjusters.)

“600% Productivity Gain for Credit Reporting Giant with R.P.A.” (Don’t let the door hit you, data analysts.)

Another reason this is so subtle is that it is not a major project being put together in many instances. Large AI projects require many departments involvement with a lot of cost. With RPA, it is minimal cost and only a couple people affected.

“It’s not a moonshot project like a lot of A.I., so companies are doing it like crazy,” Mr. Le Clair said. “With R.P.A., you can build a bot that costs $10,000 a year and take out two to four humans.”

For a company, that is a tremendous return. For $10,000 a year, more than $100K in salary and benefits are eliminated. If we spread this across a large multi-national corporation, we simply apply the rinse and repeat method.

All of this, while bad for employees, is great news for shareholders. The ability to automate ends up creating more with less. Since payroll is often one of the largest expenses a company has, significant reduction there will fall directly to the bottom line.

Unlike the robotic craze of the 80s and 90s, this one is targeting white collar workers. It is those with a college education, who work in accounting, legal, and payroll departments. We are well beyond the factory worker being automated.

The other challenge is, since we are dealing with software, advancement is much quicker and hits more people over time. In manufacturing, with robotics, it is one at a time. The process of employee replacement is slow. These devices have to be specially designed and require a lot of engineering.

Software, on the other hand, can be updated very quickly. Once certain tasks are contained in the software, more can be added. As these firms keep expanding their offerings, the number of tasks automated grows. This ends up meaning jobs.

Of course, it also starts working its way up the scale. As they become more adept, they can be programmed to work further up the decision tree. This means it is not just entry level people who are at risk.

Ultimately, we will see a situation where a large percentage of the task performed within an organization are automated.

But what about the idea of creating new jobs?

Research of what took place over the last 40 years dispels this notion. It was uncovered that technology is not really creating new jobs because it is only "so-so".

This shift may be related to the popularity of what they call “so-so automation” — technology that is just barely good enough to replace human workers, but not good enough to create new jobs or make companies significantly more productive.

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This makes total sense when we are looking at what took place over the last few decades. When it comes to jobs, outside those entirely new industries that formed, where has automation within existing industries ended up in new jobs? Or to take it one step further, where has it resulted in higher paying jobs being created?

I keep going back to a paper and then a book by David Graebar called "Bullshit Jobs" which detailed how we became very adept at creating jobs that basically meaningless and provide no value. Basically the product jobs were automated out, leaving us with a bunch of sales, admin, and other fields that offer little in terms of productivity. We basically kept creating work so people had a place to go.

Now, we are seeing many of those jobs automated out. Tesla sells its cars without dealerships i.e. sales people. Amazon does not have retail sales clerks or checkout people for most of its business. Advertising is being run by algorithms. And bots are handling the telemarketing for us.

In short, administrative positions that served little purpose other than push paper (information today) around are being automated out.

Could we be seeing capitalism actually correcting a decades long inefficiency that existed? If these people were not truly needed, why were they there? It was not for economic reasons.

Looking at the matter we can see how it is political and moral. Working is considered to be a virtuous way to be. Those who do not work are parasites. Of course, the same case could be made for the many jobs that exist and people fill yet add zero to the productivity of society.

No matter, whatever the reason, it looks like technology is going to correct the problem. And for this reason, do not expect more jobs to be created than are destroyed.


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The problem is that the number of people in the world isn't going to decrease and their livelihood needs to be considered otherwise there will be mass revolt. The government is only kicking the can down the road by using stimulus and I can only see this automation of jobs destroy the fabric of our current economy.

Now do you think UBI or bullshit jobs to be the next thing to do by the government to keep people satisfied? Neither are economically sustainable so I can only see things in a downward spiral.

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No the population isnt going to decrease, at least for a few more decades (estimates are in the 2060s we will peak). However, we can look at it on a country by country basis. Here we see a different story. Japan is turning to automation out of necessity. They have an ongoing demographic issue that is not reversing. The aging population is causing labor shortages.

Germany, Italy, and China are facing the same thing. So they might actually be aided by automation.

Other countries not so much.

So how do we handle it? Nobody has an answer. For the time being, it appears the solution is to act like it is not happening.

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Law, accounting, finance, admin that whole sector is going to be impacted by it. Google search was one of the leading job loss causes for Legal clerks as no longer did someone need to spend hours in archives searching for cases.

Instead, a simple google search brought them up, accountants will also be greatly impacted.

Looks like the shift in the future will be Labouring jobs. Physical roles that aren't automated. Well, let's be honest there isn't much automation can't do.

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That is true. I wasnt aware of the progress in Accounting but I knew about legal. I use to do work with that industry and it was one of the first ones that software started to impact. A big move was when courts started to accept electronic documents. This opened the door for a host of other software enhanced tied to the ECM.

You are right, what automation cannot do today will be done in 5 or 10 years.

There is now incentive (a market) for companies to produce the products that automate things since corporations are buying them.

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I keep wondering about my role, but then I need to do negotiations and project planning. So who knows what's able to he changed in that aspect.

people like to negotiate with other people, I don't think robots allow that (yet)

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I know its coming the finance and accounting world but struggle to see how - large corporations will be the last to give in. Not because they don't want to - more because of the stupidly complex IT infrastructure they have accumulated since the 80's.

To do a job, you have to access to 6 systems, none of which can integrate to feed information. We have DOS based systems, systems no longer supported, etc, and just moving to and ERP can take a decade, if ever. The layers and layers the multination companies built during the conglomerate phase of M&A created this headache.

Honestly - some dinosaurs may die and be replaced by new companies simply because they cannot adapt and change dynamically enough to compete.

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Yup, my thoughts exactly. The inconsistency and complex systems of today are over bearing and ridiculous to manage.

I deal with these on a daily basis! Drives me absolutely insane.

if they keep the reality of the situation quiet, workers might go along as if nothing is wrong.

Yeah the majority of people are completely in the dark.

My best friend works for one of the top 3 retailers in Canada, I wont say who, his job is literally to automate people out of work, to eliminate FTE. He manages an automation team that is going through the whole supply chain right down to store level and eliminating FTE through automation software.

I don't know where the world of work is going but I know kids these days better be learning to code from a young age. If you're not building them, you're probably going to be replaced by them at some point..

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I don't know where the world of work is going but I know kids these days better be learning to code from a young age.

The problem with this viewpoint is the presumption that AI wont be able write its own code. We are already starting to see it do this. It also is reviewing code written by humans, correcting errors.

So that might be off the table by the end of this decade.

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All of this, while bad for employees, is great news for shareholders. The ability to automate ends up creating more with less. Since payroll is often one of the largest expenses a company has, significant reduction there will fall directly to the bottom line.

Add central banks buying corporate stock and you've got yourself a double whammy.

Being a worker is getting much worse in comparison to being an owner.

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Being a worker is getting much worse in comparison to being an owner.

Been that way for some time.

Only accelerating, to the downside in my opinion. I do not see much in the way of optimism for the workers around the world.

Crypto stands to change this since it gives people the ability to be "owners" in stuff.

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The best part of it is that it does not necessarily require monetary investment. Any poor kid from a developing country can start earning tokens.

I spotted this on Twitter:

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People need to realize the versatility of the Hive platform. It's only starting to attain wider recognition.

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The humans are currently being used to build the automation. For example, the big tech companies are now interfacing humans with AI. This gives them the ability to extract data from humans and transfer them to bots.

social instability here we come. I better print my "they took our jobs" T-shirt just to be ready :)

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Get your memes going.

They will be needed along with the t-shirts.

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social unrest is more on the political side of things, for those kinds of memes @antisocialist is your guy :P

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Robots are never tired and they can do effective work better than humans. This can save salary costs and just like you mentioned in the current pandemic robots are useful than humans.

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Software is even easier since it doesnt require maintenance and can be shifted from computer to computer.

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Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
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Yes, it would be really great to reduce transmission and maintain medical personnel
We saw the crisis that occurred during Corona and the lack of medical staff caused a disaster

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Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a task automating process. The idea is not that jobs are replaced, just tasks that are redundant in nature. However, when enough of these are compiled, a job can be replaced.

@taskmaster4450le jobs will definitely be replaced and job loss will happen,that is just the FACT and the reality on ground,we should be prepared for it,but i believe that the automation is also necessary for our society as a whole,though the development will have its own negatives too but the positive side of it should outnumber the negatives.....

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@jfuchs the robots should take over the white collar jobs because i believe they will be more effective and help reduce labour costs...

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You must work for a major corporation. Reduced labor costs equal more profits for a select few companies. What about everyone else?

I have seen the automation really take off in the past 2 years. Its more accepted and there are projects and teams activity looking for more opportunities. This is all the easy, low hanging fruit now that won't impact employment, but given time and increased complexity it will start to move in that direction. Eventually, most jobs can be automated away, until we reach skynet.

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This leaves me with 1 question, what will happen when all jobs are done by robots and where will humans go?

That is what society is wrestling with. How do we handle it?

Each country is being confronted with their own unique situation. Some countries like Japan are turning to automation because of a labor shortage. The aging population there is causing problems. Countries like Germany, Italy, and China are starting to head down that same path as demographics affect them.

Nevertheless, what are people going to do for sustenance if a fair portion of the jobs are eliminated?

This is something that nobody has a solid answer for.

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