Considering University 2-Book Bundle. Ken S. Coates

that the North American drive for more and more tertiary education has outstripped the needs of the modern economy, and that the resulting underemployment and unemployment has caused serious difficulties for a large portion of the current generation. And yet what passes for policy innovation in North America rests on doubling down on a failed and failing system. This is a gamble that the solutions of the 1970s, having fallen short of objectives for a generation, will somehow come right and solve the problems of the 2010s and 2020s.

      New Technologies But Fewer Jobs

      What is missing in Clinton’s strategy—and what is missing from political and public-policy debate across North America—is a serious consideration of the transformations affecting the modern economy. Ultimately, the mismatch between the degrees and expectations of university graduates and the job market is only half the story. The first fifteen years of the twenty-first century have seen the worldwide transformation of work through technological change. In sector after sector, machines and digital technologies have replaced workers, initially in small numbers, but increasingly in the thousands. The changes happened first in industrial and resource industries, destroying thousands of jobs in forestry, pulp and paper, and manufacturing. The transformation spread into the service sector, with online banking changing the roles of bank clerks, and with e-commerce and other technological solutions undermining work in many other economic sectors.

      Even though the transition remains in the early stages, the mass use of robots has undercut a great deal of industrial labour. Henry Ford would have loved the almost worker-free assembly lines of the modern automobile factory, but North American workers are less impressed with the mounting job losses, made worse by the shift of factories to Mexico and other low-wage countries. There are many other examples. The development of computer-based income tax forms and e-filing has disrupted the personal accounting profession. Amazon.com, famous the world over for its e-commerce operation, is truly impressive as a technologically enhanced retail company, with modern, computer-controlled and automated warehouses. But spare a thought or two for the thousands of former warehouse workers being displaced by these new technologies.

      The world now faces the real prospect of continued accelerated change and rapid job loss. Autonomous oil rigs and remotely controlled mining operations promise to eliminate thousands of jobs. The first autonomous oil rig in the Arctic went into operation in 2015, and Australia’s desert mines have been world leaders in remote-controlled extraction. The impact goes far beyond the miners and oil rig workers. Removing the front-line workers means immediate declines in on-site support staff, worker transportation, accommodation services, food and other delivery systems, and the related administrative activities. Companies wishing to stay competitive—particularly when working in high-cost remote regions, where extreme weather (e.g., 120°F in the Australian outback and -50°F in the Arctic) add to the difficulties of recruiting, retaining, and caring for workers—are strongly tempted to automate their operations as much as possible. But the job losses filter throughout the economy, cutting back on opportunities for young workers.