Skip to main content

Contemplating the Workplace of Tomorrow

Research: Causes of long-term unemployment, declining labor-force participation

CHICAGO --- Robert Gordon, the Stanley G. Harris Professor in the department of economics in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, presented “Long-Term Unemployment, Shrinking Participation and Future Economic Growth” at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.

His presentation was part of the symposium “Will the Workplace of Tomorrow Have Any Workers? Computing, Productivity and Jobs” held Feb. 15. 

In the symposium, prominent economists with diverse perspectives informed by history, data and theory critically evaluated this evolving debate to consider both the aggregate benefits and potential social costs of rapid technological progress. They explored the set of public investment and social insurance policies that can best prepare countries to maximize gains and minimize adverse impacts from recent and incipient technological advances.

Gordon, considered to be one of the most influential macroeconomists in the world, has long been raising questions about the process of economic growth -- questioning whether economic growth is a continuous process that will persist forever.