---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 99 20:34:04
From: Roberto Verzola <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [GKD] ICT and Jobs
[***Moderator's note: Members may recall that in August 1998, we posted
a summary of the ICT-JOBS Working Group discussion, which EDC and ILO
hosted in May-July 1998, and which had over 700 members. The article
below is another excellent summary of the ICT-JOBS discussion, with a
somewhat different emphasis.***]
Philippine Journal
October 9, 1998
Second opinion
ICT: job creator or destroyer?
by Roberto S. Verzola
Are information and communications technologies (ICTs) a net creator or
destroyer of jobs?
This was the topic which more than a dozen scholars, consultants and
union officials debated in an online conference sponsored by the
International Labor Organization (ILO) from May to July this year.
It is both
As can be expected, the discussants all acknowledged that ICT was both a
creator and a destroyer of jobs. That machines and computers are taking
over work previously done by human beings was something nobody denied.
All agreed that ICT was destroying some types of jobs. But all likewise
acknowledged that ICT introduced new ways of doing things, creating in
the process new types of work which did not exist before.
Despite very strong opinions expressed by both sides, however, they
could not agree which role dominated.
A job creator
Some discussants asserted that ICTs create new goods and services as
well as new market opportunities and income sources. Thus, they
stimulate general economic activity, which translates into more jobs.
The new ICTs, they said, are no different in their effects from the
industrial revolution, which enhanced our productivity and improved our
living standards. Historical records since the 19th century, they added,
showed that productivity, output and jobs have all risen together.
Today, the argument goes, ICTs help businesses save money, which these
businesses then invest elsewhere, creating new jobs. There is even a
shortage of skilled ICT workers.
... and a job destroyer
Other discussants claimed that ICTs are selective in their positive
impact, and that they lead to unemployment elsewhere. When bosses
introduce machines and computers, some workers invariably get fired. In
many workplaces today, machines and computers are taking the place of
human beings, who are then left to fend off for themselves. A 1994 study
by the Communications Workers of America, for instance, showed net job
losses due to ICT over a 10-year period.
Not even statistics, however, could settle the issue. As one participant
noted, the available studies today are confined mostly to Northern
countries and a few Asian and Latin American NICs. The present data are
too ambiguous for a definite conclusion, and one can find data to
support either position. It is also difficult to capture in statistics
the effects of ICTs on the informal economy which in many countries, is
a big part of the whole economy.
Some insights emerged in the discussions which can help us better
understand the impacts of ICT on labor.
Work-at-a-distance, manage-at-a-distance
ICTs facilitate work-at-a-distance. This could led to the increasing use
of teleworking, to which many workers react ambivalently.
It is true that teleworking provides new opportunies for women in the
home, for instance, or entrepreneurs in remote villages. But teleworking
also breaks up labor cohesiveness and weakens unions; furthermore, it
tends to exclude the teleworker from traditional social security and
other job benefits.
ICTs also provide management with new options in designing work
processes and the workplace. They can ask their workers to work at home,
or they can gather previously decentralized functions like
decision-making and put them all in one central unit, decentralizing
some functions and centralizing others, in whatever mix they find most
advantageous to the company.
Jobs: from large to small firms
ICT has also made the virtual firm possible, an enterprise that
outsources much of its requirements and relies on ICT to hold the
organization together. Much has been made of the advantages of the
virtual firm -- flexibility, efficiency, and competitiveness.
Outsourcing also tends to transfer jobs from large companies -- which
become virtual firms -- to smaller companies. What is a dream to
corporations is a nightmare to labor unions; small firms are more
difficult to unionize and tend to violate labor laws more often. One
effect of outsourcing is labor contractualization.
Who decides?
The key, it seems, lies in the decision-making that leads to ICT use.
Invariably, it is management which decides when to introduce and when
not to introduce ICT into the workplace. Thus, the criteria for ICT use
will be management criteria, not labor criteria.
>From the management point of view, machines and computers are very often
preferable to human labor. Machines don't form unions; they don't go on
strike. Machines can be upsized, downsized, rightsized or whatever-sized
anytime; they can be run faster or slower, longer or shorter. Machine
outputs are more consistent and reliable, resulting in better quality
and lower cost.
Whatever is profitable
Where it remains more profitable to use human labor instead of machines,
management will obviously stick to human labor. They can relocate where
human labor is cheap and maintain control through ICT and
telemanagement. The logic of profitability, however, will continue to
reassert itself; as soon as it becomes profitable to do so, management
will eventually switch to machines.
It is true that machines and computers may require new skills, and
therefore create new jobs (computer operator, technician, Web page
designer, Webmaster, Java programmer, etc). However, this job creation
is an incidental part, while job elimination is the intentional part of
the logic.
New jobs need new skills, are less secure
Also, the jobs destroyed are actual people with real families, while the
jobs created are potential jobs. To qualify for these new potential
jobs, job-seekers have to go through a long and often expensive process
of retraining.
Furthermore, the same logic will also apply on the new jobs that ICTs
create -- these jobs will also be replaced (by automated software,
expert systems, "disintermediation", etc.) when it becomes profitable to
do so.
As the pace of technology development increases, the pace of job
elimination and replacement also speeds up. Even those who might have
the skills to acquire new jobs are under constant threat of replacement
or displacement. (Can Pascal or Dbase programmers still find jobs next
year as easily as last year?)
While the net quantitative effects of ICTs are still being debated,
their qualitative effects are clear: they have made human labor more
replaceable and jobs less secure.
