How has technology affected the recession and recovery?

Don Dodge

This Labor Day, the mainstream media will be filled with prognostications, pontifications and predictions about the state of ‘work’ in the United States. Here’s Don Dodge‘s take…

“Technology is all about productivity. Getting more things done, faster, cheaper, with fewer people. This has been called the “Jobless Recovery“. Here is why. Companies have spent billions of dollars on technology to gain productivity improvements, and it has worked. The bad news, for some workers, is that it has worked so well that some of those old jobs are never coming back. And, the new jobs that are created by technology may not be a good match for displaced workers. Take a careful look at this jobs chart.

Job losses
Chart: Calculated Risk via Business Insider

Note how recessions (job losses) are becoming deeper and lasting longer. This chart measures job losses from the peak employment month. We are now 4 years into a job recession, and it is deeper and longer than any other recession in history. In fact, the last four recessions have been deeper and longer than others in previous decades. Why is that?

…My view is that technology makes the world a better place. It makes things faster, cheaper, more productive, and opens limitless new opportunities. Technology facilitates creative destruction, destroying something old to create something new. It is that transition from old to new that we need to better manage. Our education system needs to prepare students for the new reality. Those old jobs are never coming back.” Source; Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: How technology productivity kills jobs

Go to the source to read the rest of the article and see what specific industries are circling the drain. What’s your take on Don’s perspective? Not that I would want to, but as a 53 year old white male, I don’t ever see myself working for a company besides my own again…