Should we Fear for our Jobs?

Since the dawn of the Industrial Era, our societies have felt a constant dread of losing jobs. It has invariably been caused by advances in mechanized processes and wider exposure to global competition. Is it any wonder this fear is creeping back at a time when an ever-growing number of «intellectual» activities are being «mechanised» by electronics and virtually every country on Earth is competing with one another? Advances in mechanised methods and international trade have been around for centuries, but they never spelled the end of jobs in the most developed economies; on the contrary, they brought with them a continuous stream of new jobs. How is this possible? Are there any reasons it is not happening today? These are the sorts of questions we will be asking in this session.