The potential employment impact of office automation is the topic of the study described in this book. The study reviews trends in clerical employment over the last 30 years in a search for evidence of the impact of changes in process technology on clerical employment levels. Specifically, it examines clerical employment trends from 1950 to 1980 and from 1972 to 1982 in order to understand the clerical employment impacts of technological change during the first computer revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. This understanding is used as a basis for assessing the likelihood of significant technological displacement among current clerical workers accompanying the new microprocessor-based office technologies of the 1980s. The study produced no persuasive evidence of a significant decline in clerical jobs as a result of automation. Forecasts of declining clerical employment, the study concluded, are based on overoptimistic expectations of technological improvements or exaggerated productivity claims on behalf of existing technology. The study did forecast, however, that clerical employment will not increase significantly, and that the more routine, "back office" jobs will be the first to be eliminated by computers. (KC)
Authors
- Authorizing Institution
- Upjohn (W.E.) Inst. for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, MI.
- Peer Reviewed
- F
- Publication Type
- ['Books', 'Reports - Research']
- Published in
- United States of America
