We have yet another study that debunks the widespread notion that robots — and other forms of automation, including "artificial intelligence" — will destroy our jobs and lead to a future of permanently high unemployment. According to the study, that would completely rewrite history, which has shown job creation to be an enduring strength of the U.S. economy.
The study ("False Alarmism: Technological Disruption and the U.S. Labor Market, 1850-2015") comes from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank focusing on technology. The study's greatest virtue is to remind us that past changes have wiped out entire job categories without spawning a high-unemployment society.
This doesn't mean that unemployment isn't a problem. Obviously, it is, especially during recessions or for workers whose jobs have been lost to new technologies, products or competitors. But we need to remember that the U.S. economy has enormous recuperative powers. Indeed, the study argues that technology's disruptive effects on today's job market are much less than in the past.