Automation Will Reduce Human Employment
Nowadays, in Malaysia more than half of the jobs are facing a high risk of being lost to automation where most of them are Malaysians than the foreign workers says a report by the Khazanah Research Institute (KRI). Automation is constantly putting men out of work and thus increase the number of unemployment which make those affected felt unsatisfied. Mostly we knew that most of unemployed workers are out of work because of “the new machines” witch is the automation. Automation is the technology by which a process that performed without the need of human assistance. Technological unemployment is now becoming a serious problem where most of the workers who are being affected are mostly from the semi-skilled workers such as cashiers, factory workers and banktellers. In fact that, 90% of Malaysians are from the semi-skilled workers and it can cause a lot of problem if automation taking over their jobs. There was one study from Gartner Research had stated that 1. 8 million jobs will be lost by 2020 while 2. 3 million new ones will be created. It shows that automation can eventually eliminate many jobs. There are a few list of jobs that are have been replaced or assisted by automation.
Firstly, the factory workers where now in Malaysia most of the factories are being controlled by the computers that can assemble variety types of products which have been since the late 1950’s. Today, almost all manufacturing jobs are using the robots and may increase in time to time to make millions of different products efficiently at a lower cost. These robots have become smarter and cheaper that more companies are planning to use them in their next step. In Malaysia, Top Glove Factory is now the world’s leading in producing of rubber gloves which is located at Klang. The company is using cutting-edge technology to economize on labor. The number of workers required for the facility is 400. Last three years, the number of workers is about 800. Today, the manufacturer is planning to invest a total of 220 million ringgit ($49. 4 million) by the end of August where two-thirds of which will be spend on the new facility and the rest will be used in installing the robots at existing plants. In September to November quarter, it has increase the efforts to reduce the number of labor needed in it plants, by aiming to reduce its workforce of 7, 000 foreign workers which is about 70% of its payroll. Top Glove will also double the number of technical experts in developing new equipment to 200 by next year. This show that most of the reasons why the workers are being unemployed over automation because of the company itself. Technological development is the key to cut its dependence for foreign workers, said Chairman Lim Wee Chai. Rival Kossan Rubber Industries is also taking the opportunity to reduce nearly 3, 000 foreigners on its payroll. It will install new, proprietary equipment at a plant scheduled to begin this summer near Kuala Lumpur, which allow just 1. 8 workers to do work to require five. Leading poultry producer Lay Hong is taking the opportunity to slowly change to Japanese technology in its efforts to shrink the number of its workers. NHR Manufacturing (Malaysia), its joint venture with Japanese food processing giant NH Food, aims to open a new plant specializing in halal products by 2018. It is working to shift as their main focus is from manpower to automation.
Next, taxi drivers workers. In Malaysia last time, Malaysians will using the taxi to go out anywhere they want as taxi drivers are everywhere and very famous for public transportation. But now, self-driving cars are becoming more reality with technologies that already being used today like Grab car. As more Grab cars started being used widely everywhere, the potential of job lost is staggering as it could replace the taxi drivers and those operating rental cars. “The Grab car problem is not just in Langkawi but all over Malaysia. Grab car is detrimental to normal taxi drivers. This matter will be studied so that the taxi service will be fair to all, this will be done when we take over the government later said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Ride sharing solutions, which have generally provided a more effective and cheaper public transportation option than regular taxis, have long been viewed by the taxi industry as a threat to its livelihood. However, the service is also now being used as a platform for Malaysians to increase their income, with so any move to change this will also give impact to a great number of people, not just economically as there would be much fewer mobility options as well. In addition, cashier worker. Self-checkout lines are already found in most grocery today such as in Tesco and there is even in the cinema when purchasing the cinema tickets. Even though these computers are still often managed or watched by a human, that human is taking place of other people that used to be a cashier. Irispay E-Concept Store is entirely cashless and requires customers to make payments via the Irispay app. By eliminating the need for physical staff, the shop is able to operate round the clock without worrying about labour cost. There is also self-service bank branch which the potential exists for developing customer self-service as a low-cost accommodation strategy with the aid of technology. These show that Automation frees up the workforce from their routine and repetitive tasks. Therefore, automation will be more productive than the workers that performing in the expert cognitive tasks.
In manufacturing, automation also helps to improve overall performance and efficiency by reducing errors, speed in production and increase in accuracy. Most of the automation is more affordable than a human worker. Automation also do not sleep, do not need health insurance and it can give more profit than a human worker. Compared with human workers, robots may be quicker to train, cheaper to maintain, easier to refuel and repair, and less prone to be bored by repetitive tasks. In fact that we cannot compare human abilities with automotive but nowadays automotive capabilities are now becoming more advance. For example, if we need to solve mathematics questions, we can easily use our smart phone to solve it very quick and accurate. We can also get a lot of useful information by using the playstore application that is already provided in our smartphone. However, automotive revolution can cause uncontrollable disruption and drastically reduced the need of human labor. For example, Blue collar and white collar will be eliminated. But will the people who lost their semi-skilled jobs be able to move into these high skill roles instead? Of course not, without significant training and education.
The transition could be very painful and hard for them. When most of the them are unemployed it will cause a lot of negative impact on the society. The negative impact that involve such as having health issues, economic issues and social issues. In health issues, being unemployed can lead to depression, anxiety and other mental health issues as they need to work hard to find other job immediately for living which they are hardly get employed. Next in economic issues, when they are unemployed where they have no income it will lead to poverty. So the federal government have to pay for the unemployment benefits by borrowing the money to pay the benefits. Then, social issues where most of the crimes are committed by unemployed individual as they need money to survive. Therefore, as the number of unemployed increases, the number of crime also increases.
Mostly the crime is such as theft, burglary and shoplifting. Even though automation cannot be stopped once and for all, there are still other ways to mitigate its effects. Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBRIM) chief executive officer Yusry Yusoff had even said that “Not everything can be automated. There are some areas where robots and automation can never replace human capabilities”. As we have seen, displacement because of technological factors occurs in good times and in bad times. In prosperous years there is at least the possibility that other jobs will open up such as better jobs or perhaps poorer, but some kind of jobs. In years of depression there is less chance of being selected for such jobs. Bill Gates has proposed that robots must be taxed. The fund could be used to retrain and financially support displaced workers, who could transition to jobs in health care, education or other things. A similar idea is also to have robotics companies that help the workers they displace. Others have suggested wage subsidies and direct government employment programs. Besides that, those workers will each need to be more productive than workers today. They also need to improve at a faster rate than they have in the past to maintain in the job.
In conclusion from these tasks, I get to learn the importance of having a very good skills and knowledge in our life so that we can create our own job opportunity which can prevent ourselves from being unemployed by automation. I can also improve myself to become more open-minded and be more creative so that I can help other people out there who is unemployed to find a best way for them to create a better life in future. The knowledge that “in the long run there is no technological unemployment” offers the unemployed neither spiritual consolation nor material sustenance. Their all-important problem is to obtain jobs quickly.
