SOCI 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Domestic Violence, Cegep, Visible Minority
8 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lecture 15 (November 2nd, 2017)
Work and Education
! Changing structures of work – trends (cont. from last class)
7) Maybe more family friendly work policies (work/life balance – flex schedules, parental leave)
•!There is a cost, though – there are costs for increased female participation in the market
o!The average hourly earnings of childless women were close to 30% higher than
mothers who took more than 3 years off by age 40, according to a 2009 Statistics
Canada report
o!Mothers who took a shorter leave by age 33, however, were able to catch up to their
childless peers.
8) Automation
•!Automation/artificial intelligence is the talk of the time
•!Prof suspects that our generation has a lot of anxiety about that. Scholars and commentators
disagree on this whether or not this is particularly unique – quite difficult to know what train
people our age to do for the rest of our careers – what will work look like in the middle of
our careers? Will our job of choice exist in the middle of our career?
•!This is very difficult to predict how far will automation and artificial intelligence go, and
how many jobs will touch – very difficult to figure this out
•!It’s not just touching manufacturing, but artificial intelligence and software hitting
professions in a way where there’s a decline in the number of people working in these
professions:
o!Law
o!Medicine
o!Taxes (accountants)
"!Robotics are taking over some surgery procedures, and the robot is
statistically performing better (less chance for error)
o!Manufacturing
•!The number of people being accepted in those jobs (^) and the amount of people who train
for these jobs is very different. The gap of those who trained and those who actually get the
jobs creates a massive problem
•!Automation is increasingly turning into artificial intelligence, which may be a game changer
•!There is going to be dramatic changes in our life time, and this is undebatable
o!Consequences: growing inequality, and higher unemployment rates
•!Because of artificial intelligence there may be less jobs available, yet our population is
growing (2 billion more people, but not 2 billion more jobs available)
9) Decline in unions (arguably due in part to increase in globalization)
•!The % of the labor market that is in a unionized position
! Articles: and we’re off
•!http://www.dw.com/en/basic-income-scheme-comes-to-canadas-poor/a-38615191
•!http://www.bbc.com/news/world-39706765
•!http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/03/19/automation-canada-jobs_n_15470074.html
•!Going forward, in the medium to long term, it’ll be difficult to label those who are
unemployed “lazy”
•!Well have to come to completely different arrangements
! Unemployment – The extent of unemployment:
•!In the U.S. the unemployment rate has fluctuated from between 4 and 11% over the last 60
years. Currently about 4.4%.
•!In Canada, Unemployment is about 6.2%.
o!Do we have a worst here?
o!Some people will look at these numbers and think of the alternative health of the
economy
o!One could look at these numbers and say that social welfare is more generous in
Canada, allowing more people to stay unemployed for a longer period of time without
that feeling of desperation of going back to work earlier and being underemployed
•!Discuss:
o!How might unemployment be seen as a personal problem?
"!What is the narrative associated with it being my problem?
"!Laziness is right up there – explaining why I am unemployed from an
individual standpoint/rationale for my condition
o!How might unemployment be seen as a social problem?
"!A lot of trends of economy are so far off our individual control
"!Individuals have very low control over those trends in the labor market
o!What are some of the causes of unemployment?
o!Is it the States role to employ its citizens?
! Youth unemployment
•!Youth Unemployment (ages 16-24) versus 25+
•!Comparison of countries in (available for and seeking work)
•!Some of these numbers are startling
•!There’s a great potential of high levels of inequality
generating social disruption
•!Another way of looking at that inequality is to be looking at
unemployment, in particularly youth unemployment
•!We shouldn’t be terribly surprised to see what’s going on in
Spain right now: half a million people at a time cruising out on the streets
o!Some other events are going on related to those processes
o!There is nothing for young people to do
o!The only reason why these are sustainable in a place like Spain is cultural (staying at
home with your parents for a long time is very culturally acceptable there)
•!Unemployment rates during the great depression covered about 25%
o!What happened during the great depression?
o!One of the single biggest pushes for the breakdown of capitalism towards
communism in the west because the system wasn’t working for so many people
o!Major unrest
! Causes of unemployment
•!What factors underlie the States inability to deliver enough jobs to its people.
•!1) Automation and technological changes: (major thing!)
o!Employers install new machinery in order to increase worker productivity and/or cut
labor costs.
o!This is the grand scheme of things
o!Politicians spend very little time on talking about the role of automation in the decline
in certain sectors of the economy likely because its very difficult to demonize a
machine, whereas its pretty easy to demonize other people or other countries
o!Those hit hardest are unskilled and semiskilled workers.
o!Taxing companies who use artificial intelligence so the government can generate
some sort of revenue – we’ll charge you for using a certain robot and then you just
transfer that to social welfare for people who aren’t working and pay basic incomes
o!Corporate taxes are generally a low share, so if we the people have low income, taxes
won’t be a high revenue for government so now they must tax companies that use
robotics, and then transfer that income to welfare people
o!Once the unemployment rate gets above a certain threshold, it’s difficult to maintain
the narrative of “people are lazy” – you need a certain response than just blaming the
people who are unemployed
•!2) Job exports (outsourcing)
o!connected to globalization, automation, software, you just need fewer people to do
the same amount of work because software is helping you out
•!3) Government Policies??
o!Unemployment insurance
•!4) Corporate downsizing
o!Part of this is connected to globalization,
software… you need fewer people to do the
same amount of work
•!5) Discrimination
o!Rates of unemployment are higher for minorities and during economic contraction
they are hit the hardest. THE FIGURES BELOW ARE FOR US COLLEGE GRADS
ONLY
o!Minorities are hit the hardest – when we have an economic downturn, people are not
hit badly equally, minorities are hit worst
o!Rates of unemployment are higher for minorities and during economic contraction
they are hit
o!Part of this is about race and ethnicity – it’s important to understand that people are
not hit equally throughout society
o!You see overall in 2007 was booming, 50% higher unemployment during the
recession compared to the white
o!When I need to lay people off and downsize, the first people that tend to go minorities
o!Last to be hired and first to go
o!Minorities tend to pay a higher price when organizations need to lay people off and
downsize
Document Summary
It"s not just touching manufacturing, but artificial intelligence and software hitting professions in a way where there"s a decline in the number of people working in these professions: o law o medicine o taxes (accountants) Articles: and we"re off: http://www. dw. com/en/basic-income-scheme-comes-to-canadas-poor/a-38615191, http://www. bbc. com/news/world-39706765, http://www. huffingtonpost. ca/2017/03/19/automation-canada-jobs_n_15470074. html, going forward, in the medium to long term, it"ll be difficult to label those who are unemployed lazy , well have to come to completely different arrangements. In the u. s. the unemployment rate has fluctuated from between 4 and 11% over the last 60 years. A lot of trends of economy are so far off our individual control. The figures below are for us college grads. U. s. unemployment by ethnicity: overtime: by race and ethnicity (dark blue, we see across the board, overall there are differences in the level of unemployment. Canada unemployment by immigration status: blue = recent immigrants (20% are unemployed) Immigrants who came to canada between 2006 and 2011.
