Labor and jobs

MIT researchers have found that lower birth rates are associated with higher growth in Gross Domestic Product globally, writes The Atlantic’s Idrees Kahloon. “[P]erhaps more important than the observed correlation is the authors’ proposed explanation: that when prime-age workers become scarce, companies adapt by developing productivity-boosting technology,” notes Kahloon.  

Prof. Emilio J. Castilla speaks to Forbes’ Lauren Russell about how bias can shape employee performance reviews. “Bias—whether explicit or unconscious—can potentially shape employment decisions at every stage, from who is interviewed and hired to who is promoted and who is rewarded for excellent performance,” says Castilla.  

In a study of developers using GitHub Copilot, MIT researchers found AI shifted time away from teamwork and toward coding, writes Forbes’ Sarah Davis. “If AI reduces the need to ask colleagues for help and advice, workplaces become the mechanism for creating human interactions that promote connection and knowledge sharing,” writes Davis.  

Prof. Daron Acemoglu discusses how issues with AI and social media inform his new book, “What Happened to Liberal Democracy?” in an article by Fortune’s Nick Lichtenberg. “We live in an environment that’s been partly shaped by social media, and there is a tendency to escalate everything, because that gets attention,” says Acemoglu. “Politics is like that. The other topic like that, unfortunately, is AI.” 

MIT researchers found that contrary to popular assumptions, lower birth rates have raised rather than lowered the Gross Domestic Product globally, writes The Dispatch’s Eli Kronenberg. “Across the board, we found that these lower birth rates were leading to a faster pace of technological adoption and progress,” says graduate student Keelan Beirne, a co-author on the paper. 

Financial Times reporter Martin Wolf spotlights Institute Prof. Daron Acemoglu’s latest book, “What Happened to Liberal Democracy?”, which he notes is "timely and thought-provoking,” and "an important call to arms.” In the book, Acemoglu explores his "grand idea of ‘working-class liberalism,’” writes Wolf. “This concept, he states, is built on experimentation and the freedoms of association and expression, is suspicious of excessive power, uses redistribution, allows the less fortunate to participate more fully, values growth, attempts to provide good jobs for everybody and values community, trust and the sharing of useful knowledge.”

In an article about AI’s impact on the job market, The Guardian’s Varsha Bansal highlights Prof. Paul Osterman’s new book, “Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment.” Bansal writes: “About 35% of the US workforce is already considered easily replaceable, according to his [Osterman’s] research. AI will only exacerbate this, he said. But not all jobs are in the same boat, and neither are their options for adapting, said MIT’s Osterman.” 

Ben Armstrong, executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center, speaks to The New York Times reporter Jack Ewing about humanoid robots being deployed to work in car factories. “Humanoids are a million-dollar solution to a one-hundred-dollar problem,” says Armstrong. “The prospect of humanoids to change the game in automotive is quite small.” 

Prof. Paul Osterman speaks to Forbes’ Courtney Connley-Hampton about his new book “Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment,” and how AI may exacerbate the disposable worker trend. “Your only source of power in the labor market is your human capital, your skill,” says Osterman. “Get as much skill as you can. You may end up having to change jobs and move around, but if you have valuable skills, that protects you.” 

Fox Business’ Eric Revell highlights MIT being named to the top five of LinkedIn’s list of the top colleges that give graduates the strongest career edge. “The report uses LinkedIn data to rank colleges based on five categories: job placement, internships and recruiter demand, career success, network strength and knowledge breadth,” writes Revell.  

Principal Research Scientist John Liu speaks to Manufacturing Dive’s Nathan Owens about MIT’s Technologist Advanced Manufacturing Program (TechAMP), a 12-month-long certificate program designed to "bring experienced technicians into leadership roles with a focus on advanced manufacturing needs.” Says Liu: "We’re looking at developing this elite workforce who bridges the gap. What we’re trying to do is upskill the technician.” 

Fortune reporter Preston Fore highlights Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee's warning that companies should not replace entry level jobs with AI. “[I]f you’re pulling back on your entry-level hiring, you are probably sacrificing future opportunities to learn and the skilled people of the future,” says McAfee. “You’re also turning off the spigot of the most enthusiastic power users of AI in your organization.”  

Research Scientist Maria Jesús Saénz discusses the benefits and barriers to companies adopting AI in their supply chains for a Financial Times article by reporter Lucy Colback. “If you are having humans change their process for automation in order to substitute themselves, this is a very perverse thing,” Saénz says. “They want to keep their salary and might boycott the AI. [They may] be algorithm averse.” 

Richard Locke, dean of MIT Sloan School of Management, speaks to Poets&Quants reporter Marc Ethier about Sloan’s new evening MBA program, designed for full-time workers. “There’s an incredibly rich population in the Boston-New England regional area who have the same grades, the same test scores, the same experience as our current MBA students,” says Locke. “The one exception is they don’t want to leave their jobs. They want to continue to work, but they want to actually get an MBA from a place like MIT Sloan. They want to accelerate their careers where they are.”