labor market

Prof. David Autor speaks with Tony Dokoupil of CBS News about how the rise of artificial intelligence could change the quality of jobs. "What we've seen over the last four decades in the U.S. and many industrialized economies is what economists call labor market polarization, which means the hollowing out of the middle set of jobs,” says Autor. The "hollowing out" of the middle has led to some in the labor market moving up and making more money, while others are now making less — and "that's especially where the pain happens," Autor adds. 

Prof. David Autor speaks with ABC News reporter Max Zahn about whether new AI technologies could displace workers. "The thing we shouldn't be worried about at present or for quite a while is the quantity of jobs," said Autor. "We should be worried about the quality of jobs."

Writing for the Financial Times, Prof. Daron Acemoglu and his co-authors explore their research demonstrating that “the biggest shift when a chief executive with a business degree takes charge is a decline in wages and the share of revenues going to labor.” Acemoglu and his co-authors note that while many business schools have updated their offerings to include more ethics courses, they emphasize the importance of “being aware of what managers with business degrees used to do is an important step in reflecting on how we can build better programs.”

The Economist highlights several studies by MIT researchers on income inequality and wages in the U.S., noting that “Clem Aeppli of Harvard and Nathan Wilmers of MIT found that earnings inequality basically reached a plateau after 2012.” Additionally, Prof. David Autor and his colleagues have found that wages for the bottom half of workers have been growing roughly two percentage points faster than for the upper half of workers.

Prof. Daron Acemoglu and his colleagues have found that “managers educated at business schools were more likely to favor shareholders over employees,” writes University of London Prof. André Spicer for the Financial Times. The researchers found that “employees working for companies run by a business school-educated manager earned, on average, 6 percent less in the US and 3 percent less in Denmark,” writes Spicer.

New research by Prof. David Autor finds that in the U.S. the fast wage growth underway likely reflects a more competitive labor market for workers, writes Martin Sandbu for the Financial Times. “If more workers than before are shifting from worse-paid to better-paid jobs, then wage acceleration is a welcome indicator of an equally welcome reallocation of labor towards more productive activities,” Sandbu writes.

Writing for The Hill, Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, explores how automation could ease the supply chain crisis. “Automation in these settings doesn’t mean replacing employees, but developing more robust inventory management software and using systems like scanners and conveyors that make our jobs easier,” writes Rus. “This would enable warehouse workers to focus on other more detail-oriented roles, from overseeing the operation of forklifts to improving the efficiencies of distribution centers.”

Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Freakonomics Radio host Stephen Dubner about his research exploring how having a boss who attended business school can impact a business. “The main findings are actually very simple,” says Acemoglu. “As soon as you have a business school manager, you see a relative decline in wages and labor share.”

Prof. Anna Stansbury speaks with Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast about her research on the labor market and worker power. “In my work, when I'm trying to measure worker power," says Stansbury, "I'm trying to say, ‘What would a given worker be paid in a kind of market situation without that power? And then how do different factors give that worker the ability to share in the profits of the firm?’"

Amazon workers from Staten Island have become the first group to vote in favor of unionizing, reports Ari Levy and Annie Palmer for CNBC. “I would expect now that there is this first victory on the part of a union that Amazon is going to have to reassess its labor relations strategy and begin to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement,” says Prof. Tom Kochan.

New York Times reporter Steve Lohr spotlights how the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Omidyar Network have made a gift to help establish a new program that will analyze forces contributing to the erosion of job quality and labor market opportunity for workers without college degrees. “Markets are terrific, but we have to overcome this notion that ‘markets are autonomous — so just leave it to the market,’” says Prof. David Autor. “That fatalism is a decision.”

Prof. David Autor, Harvard University Prof. Gordon Hanson, University of Zurich Prof. David Dorn, and Monsah University Prof. Kaveh Majlesi have described an “ideological realignment in trade-exposed local labor markets that commences prior to the divisive 2016 U.S. presidential election,” reports Thomas B. Edsall for The New York Times.

The Economist highlights new work by MIT researchers investigating the impact of automation on the labor market. A study by graduate student Joonas Tuhkuri finds that at Finnish firms “adoption of advanced technologies led to increases in hiring.” Meanwhile a new book by Profs. David Autor, David Mindell and Elisabeth Reynolds concludes that “even if robots do not create widespread joblessness, they may have helped create an environment where the rewards are ‘skewed towards the top.’”

CNBC reporter Jennifer Liu spotlights a new study by researchers from the Sloan School of Management who found that the biggest factor that leads people to quit their jobs is a toxic work culture. Senior lecturer Donald Sull says, “what’s significant is that toxic workplace factors lead to a ‘stronger reaction’ – quitting – more so than other bad work issues,” writes Liu.

Boston Globe reporter Angela Yang spotlights how the MIT Sloan School of Management has been offering a virtual speaker series focused on preparing students for a changing work and business landscape. Prof. Erin Kelly, who worked on a toolkit launched in July aimed at helping employers create more supportive work cultures, noted that it’s "an exciting moment, because we may be ready to look at how work can be more sane and sustainable across all kinds of occupations.”