Robots Will Take All the Jobs? Not So Fast...

摘要

American workers may finally start seeing some real wage hikes. That's the view of a group of increasingly vocal economists who say a significant slowdown in labor force growth in the U.S. and abroad will put a premium on finding workers. "We're going from a world of generally too much labor to a world of labor shortages," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. Zandi says labor's share of the economic pie has stopped shrinking and will grow in the years ahead. If Zandi and other economists turn out to be right, corporate profits will get pinched by rising salaries. Investors will have to adjust to a weaker earnings outlook, says Gad Levanon, a managing director at the Conference Board in New York. He adds that inequality might even be curbed, as the rich reap less from capital gains while employees earn more in wages.