Robots Are Very Bad News for Millennial Workers
In the U.S., education offers you protection against workplace automation, but in Europe your employment contract does. That penalizes the young.
Move over, Generation Z.
Photographer: Patrick Daxenbichler/iStockphotoThe rise of populist politicians across the rich world has led to a profound rethinking of the way developed economies work. In particular, the impact of automation on the labor market, and the disappearance of routine manufacturing jobs, has been blamed for the electoral successes of leaders such as U.S. President Donald Trump and Italy’s Matteo Salvini.
Yet there are profound differences in what determines the economic winners and losers on the two sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., the main factor deciding whether a worker can prosper in the age of robots appears to be education. Conversely, in the European Union, it seems to be whether staff have strong protection in their employment contracts — as many older industrial workers do here.