What do you think?
Rate this book
The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines
Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem.
The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation.
Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.
The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation.
Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published January 25, 2022
1 person is currently reading
227 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 23, 2023
The analysis done by the Task Force has spaned more tha three years, starting in 2018. Therefore, one of the difficulties faced by the authors has been to incorporated to their ideas the acceleration of digitalisation brought by the COVID19 pandemia and many disrupting techs that have increased their weight in companies, like AI.
An important part of the book is focused in the analysys of how technologies impact on productivity and the balance on the number of jobs lost and created. The author defends that the most credible theory is that even as automation saves labor, it spurs countervailing forces (e.g. new services driving more consumption or new kuds of work) that tend to generate new work with a positive balance. Nevertheless, the authors warn against looking for inmediate effects, whatever they would be, because the integration of new technology is always slower than we expect.
Education and training are put forward as the driving forces for better jobs. Beyond the technologies that are caused the changes on the job market, the training programs should have certain features to achieve success, with extending ownership at the focus. Regional partnerships and public-private collaboration in the development of the program looks as key ingredients recommended by the authors.
However, training is hardly enough to ensure a smooth transition to the forthcoming job market. Government should develop labour policies to establish an unemployment insurance system according with the new reality, recover the value of minimum wage and restoring the labour institutions.
Finally, a detailed chapter of conclusions a policy recommendations is included but I would not spoiled its reading.
A collection of quotes of the book in this twitter thread https://twitter.com/egarciagarcia/sta...
An important part of the book is focused in the analysys of how technologies impact on productivity and the balance on the number of jobs lost and created. The author defends that the most credible theory is that even as automation saves labor, it spurs countervailing forces (e.g. new services driving more consumption or new kuds of work) that tend to generate new work with a positive balance. Nevertheless, the authors warn against looking for inmediate effects, whatever they would be, because the integration of new technology is always slower than we expect.
Education and training are put forward as the driving forces for better jobs. Beyond the technologies that are caused the changes on the job market, the training programs should have certain features to achieve success, with extending ownership at the focus. Regional partnerships and public-private collaboration in the development of the program looks as key ingredients recommended by the authors.
However, training is hardly enough to ensure a smooth transition to the forthcoming job market. Government should develop labour policies to establish an unemployment insurance system according with the new reality, recover the value of minimum wage and restoring the labour institutions.
Finally, a detailed chapter of conclusions a policy recommendations is included but I would not spoiled its reading.
A collection of quotes of the book in this twitter thread https://twitter.com/egarciagarcia/sta...
November 15, 2025
A largely academic collection examining how societies can prepare for the evolving future of work amid advances in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Though dense for general readers, the text offers useful insights on topics such as the value of technical education and taxation policy. Notably absent, however, is a discussion of expanding public‑private partnerships to foster outcome‑oriented employment strategies. This is a disappointing omission given that many innovations in robotics and AI originated from government funding. The public therefore deserves a voice in shaping future policies, especially with regards to better jobs.
(More on public-private partnerships can be found in Darrell West's "The Future of Work", published 2018 by the Brookings Institution)
(More on public-private partnerships can be found in Darrell West's "The Future of Work", published 2018 by the Brookings Institution)
August 27, 2024
Autor's publications are much shorter and somehow manage to cover all the content in here so I learned very little? See my lit review for notes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m...
November 11, 2025
I'm surprised how bad it is, it says education / training are pathways to better jobs, but we have so many college grads who could not find jobs. Well this was written in 2022 before the breakout of AI.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews