The Threat to White Collar Jobs

This article (a teaser for an upcoming book) argues that it’s not just middle class jobs at risk. Indeed, there’s apparently nothing special about white collar jobs either.

“The perception is that a lawyer drafts a unique legal document for each client and there’s something of the craftsman to it all,” Susskind says. “Architects are perceived as leaning over their easel with a pencil, scratching away and designing buildings.”

But in fact, he explains, when you divide the work of each profession into distinct tasks, many actions can be “routinized” into standard operating procedures that can be carried out by computers.