The pandemic and the triumph of the Luddites

Covid-19 was meant to lead to job-killing automation

In this photograph taken on December 12, 2022 a worker checks soft drink cans as they pass on a production line at the stage of trimming in Ball Packaging factory in Bierne, northern France. - Like a contemporary art sculpture, a stack of cubic metal compressions from beverage can production offcuts is ready to hit the road. Not for the museum, but to be remelted in an aluminium factory. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP) (Photo by SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images) — Image: Getty Images

Dec 20th 2022|San Francisco

It was meant to be a bloodbath. When covid-19 struck in early 2020, economists warned that a wave of job-killing robots would sweep over the labour market, leading to high and structural unemployment. One prominent economist, in congressional testimony in the autumn, asserted that employers were ”substituting machines for workers”. A paper published by the imf in early 2021 said that such concerns “seem justified”. Surveys of firms suggested they had grand plans to invest in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Triumph of the Luddites”