Trialling the future of jobs

piloting a shorter working week, in which employees work four days but are paid for the full five.

Success would be happier, healthier, more productive workers. Many other employees and firms will be very interested to see the results of the six-week trial.

The firm’s project is just one possible outcome from major, ongoing change in the way billions of people around the globe are employed and paid. Because of these looming changes, some of the globe’s captains of industry are considering their own perpetual guardian of sorts: a universal income that benefits the poor and those alienated by advances in technology.

For many impacted over the next decade or so, it will not be about working shorter hours on the same or better money. Millions will see hours of work and pay eroded by automation and robotics. Some are experiencing this right now. Many will lose their jobs entirely, if they are unable to adapt and retrain.

It will not be just the usual suspects - drivers, factory workers and call-centre staff. Other jobs under threat include financial workers, librarians, even journalists.

This is worrying some of the world’s most influential and wealthy people, including Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and, in New Zealand, our own Gareth Morgan. They, as well as many others, are advocating a universal basic income to provide a safety net for those at risk; paid regardless of the person’s work status.

Their concern is partly selfinterest: what good are bold, innovative products and technologies if there are fewer people to pay for them. But they also see the sense in those benefiting from change making a contribution towards its consequences.

This is a recognition that the creation of such a benefit would potentially involve a redistribution of wealth on a massive, global scale. Much of that would need to come from the pockets of the wealthy few benefiting the most from this new technological revolution.

All of this will mean big changes, not only for the future job market but also the politicians and policymakers who will create and support its infrastructure. The Labour Party has studied this area through its own Future of Work Commission.

Now that they are in government, we hope they are watching this particular Kiwi trial and other global developments closely.