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Starting off in the world of work can be a daunting experience at the best of times. Learning new skills, adjusting to the work environment and settling into a new rhythm of life may seem like a challenge.
But graduates also face the reality that today’s world of work is completely different from anything that’s gone before. Automation is everywhere and there are completely new kinds of jobs —the type that probably didn’t exist ten, or even five years ago. As careers and skill sets continue to evolve, how do you succeed in a jobs market that’s changing by the day?
To stay ahead in the world of work, you need to be agile, imaginative, flexible and clear-sighted. The Economist provides exactly the insights, perspectives and guidance to help. Take a moment to read an extract from one of our articles, and you’ll see that The Economist will give you analysis you can’t do without:
A sample from the print edition
THERE IS SOMETHING familiar about fears that new machines will take everyone’s jobs, benefiting only a select few and upending society. Such concerns sparked furious arguments two centuries ago as industrialisation took hold in Britain. People at the time did not talk of an “industrial revolution” but of the“machinery question”. First posed by the economist David Ricardo in 1821, it concerned the “influence of machinery on the interests of the different classes of society”, and in particular the “opinion entertained by the labouring class, that the employment of machinery is frequently detrimental to their interests”. Thomas Carlyle, writing in 1839, railed against the “demon of mechanism” whose disruptive power was guilty of “oversetting whole multitudes of workmen”.
Today the machinery question is back with avengeance, in a new guise. Technologists, economists and philosophers are now debating the implications of artificial intelligence (AI), a fast-moving technology that enables machines to perform tasks that could previously be done only by humans. Its impact could be profound. It threatens workers whose jobs had seemed impossible to automate, from radiologists to legal clerks. A widely cited study by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne of Oxford University, published in 2013, found that 47% of jobs in America were at high risk of being “substituted by computer capital” soon. More recently Bank of America Merrill Lynch predicted that by 2025 the “annual creative disruption impact” from AI could amount to $14 trillion-33 trillion, including a $9 trillion reduction inemployment costs thanks to AI-enabled automation of knowledge work; costreductions of $8 trillion in manufacturing and health care; and $2 trillion inefficiency gains from the deployment of self-driving cars and drones. The McKinsey Global Institute, a think-tank, says AI is contributing to atransformation of society “happening ten times faster and at 300 times the scale, or roughly 3,000 times the impact” of the Industrial Revolution. Just as people did two centuries ago, many fear that machines will make millions of workers redundant, causing inequality and unrest.
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The Economist is a smart guide to the forces that shape our future, including those impacting your career. From business and politics, to science and technology, our analysis gives our readers the insight they need to stay ahead. How will Artificial Intelligence affect your career? Are MBAs still worth it? Has your degree really prepared you for the world of work? Youcan find the answer to these questions and more with The Economist.
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