Economic growth, even when it seems impressive, appears to be generating fewer jobs than in the past. Often, the jobs being created are part-time and not well compensated. According to Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at New York University, this indicates that "the share of labor in the economy is collapsing and that will continue."
As indicated by a recent article penned by Katrin Bennhold, some people are speaking of a third industrial revolution. Others call it a second machine age. With the processing speed of computers doubling roughly every eighteen months and machines getting smarter by the day, paid work for human beings could become much scarcer.
According to a recent study by economist Carl Benedikt Frey and professor Michael Osborne of the University of Oxford, forty-seven percent of all employment in the U.S. is susceptible to automation over the next two decades. Among the jobs at risk are those held by accountants, truck drivers, machinists, and strawberry pickers among many others.