Workers are emerging as the next big AI logjam

{"text":[[{"start":3.15,"text":"Big Tech likes to see itself as a democratising force. Fintech brings banking to the unbanked, TikTok makes everyone a star. It was always a tenuous argument; AI knocks it clean off the pitch — by making access to some resources even more exclusive."}],[{"start":21.4,"text":"Building and running data centres guzzles materials; when supply lags, more established customers fall to the back of the queue. Take chips. Micron, the third-biggest maker of memory, pulled out of the consumer market earlier this year to fill orders from data centres or, as the company put it, “our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments”. Prices for PCs and other consumer goods rose, as did lead times."}],[{"start":48.099999999999994,"text":"Labour is emerging as the next bottleneck. AI has drawn more attention for the jobs it’s eliminating but Big Tech — planning to spend a combined $725bn on infrastructure — has woken up to the need for brawn and crafts skills to build and maintain data centres. This month Facebook owner Meta Platforms launched “America’s Workforce Academy” to train skilled tradespeople; Google is bent on similar endeavours."}],[{"start":74.44999999999999,"text":"True, these newer recruits are bound to earn well below the average Meta employee’s $640,000, including share-based comp and benefits, salary. But supply shortages mean they will get a jump on longer-standing peers. Associated Builders and Contractors sees a shortfall now of about 350,000. As existing workers retire, that is expected to exceed 1mn by 2030, says the National Center for Construction Education and Research, which provides curricula and certification for trades."}],[{"start":104.85,"text":"Trade bodies are not alone in their projections. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics sees demand for electricians rising by almost a tenth through to 2034; more than double the rate for lawyers over the same period. America’s two fastest-growing jobs, according to BLS projections, are both physical: wind turbine technicians and solar panel installers."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":128.2,"text":"Some workers are already flexing their newfound muscle. Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory-chip maker, is due to award a profit-sharing bonus to workers after union members threatened to down tools. That hardly seems egregious for a company funnelling 11.3 per cent of revenue into research and development. TSMC, the world’s biggest chipmaker, is also boosting bonuses for its Taiwan-based workforce."}],[{"start":154.54999999999998,"text":"Some trends are also helpful. The traditional stigma attached to these jobs is waning alongside the falling value of university degrees; NCCER, the US training and certification body, points to graduates starting to migrate towards the “tool belt” by supplementing their degrees with trades apprenticeships. Overtime plays a big role in the industry. "}],[{"start":175.54999999999998,"text":"As disruptions go, it’s a far cry from the Black Death in medieval England, when craftsmen doubled or trebled their wages. But as the newest employer on the block, tech has the deepest pockets and, for workers, sufficient dazzle to leave other industries short."}],[{"start":196.09999999999997,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782025243_8201.mp3"}