Computers ‘do not mean loss of jobs’

Press, 28 November 1979, Page 16

Computers ‘do not mean loss of jobs’

Fears of mass lay-offs because of the introduction of microprocessors are exaggerated, according to Professor J. F. Coales, emeritus professor of engineering at the University of Cambridge. He said that people who would lose their jobs would have to be retrained, and there would be some disruption, but he did not foresee the likelihood of fewer jobs. This view is in direct c< ntrast to those that have been put forward by trade union leaders and some academics in New Zealand recently. D rofessor Coales said he had no “hard evidence” to disprove the job-loss theory, but he did know that the introduction of computers into banks and insurance companies in Britain had produced “no serious clerical unemployment.” One of the reasons why it had not was because computers were introduced gradually over about 10 years.

The introduction of microprocessors might put some people out of jobs, but it also led to the creation of new jobs.

The most disruption to the labour market occurred where the introduction had been delayed too long then imposed late by necessity, such as in the British steel industry. Professor Coales pre-, dieted that there would be a growing demand from the shop floor for more choice in the place of work. Ultimately, clerks could do some of the work in their own home if they had a computer terminal there, and could eventually negotiate a “price for the job” with their employers. Small businesses could capitalise on the new technology. Small, flexible plants would be able to adapt more readily to changing markets and stay freer from industrial disputes.

A long-term aim of the British Post Office was to abolish the postal system.

If the cost of telex terminals could be reduced, people could have them in tiieir homes and instead of writing letters, just use the telex to transmit messages, and get a reply much quicker than by conventional mail, he said. The advent of microprocessors would make the terminals cheaper. Professor Coales gave a lecture on the subject of microprocessors at the School of Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He is a past president of the International Federation of Automatic Control, the Society of Instrument Technology, the World Environment and Resources Council, and the Institution of Electrical Engineering.