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In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) applications have generated increasing interest in 'future of work' discussions as the technology achieved superhuman performance in a range of valuable tasks, from radiology to legal contracts. However, it has been difficult to get a specific read on AI's implications on the labor market. In part because the technologies have not yet been widely adopted, analyses have had to rely either on case studies or subjective assessments by experts to determine which occupations might be susceptible to an AI takeover. Most research has concentrated on an undifferentiated array of 'automation' technologies including robotics, software, and AI all at once. The result has been a lot of discussion - but not a lot of clarity - about AI.

A new way to identify the kinds of tasks and occupations likely to be affected by particular AI capabilities by quantifying the overlap between the text of AI patents and the text of job descriptions has allowed investigation of the kinds of occupations likely to be affected by AI specifically, as opposed to those affected by the broader swath of automation technologies. The new AI measures show a very different range of impacts on the workforce than those from robotics and software. Where the robotics and software that dominate the automation field seem mostly to involve 'routine' or 'rule-based' tasks (and thus lower- or middle-pay roles), AI's distinctive capacities suggest that higher-wage occupations will be some of the most exposed.

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Pomoting opportunity for all workers has become a defining challenge for metropolitan regions throughout the United States, including Central Indiana. In recent years, this region has added jobs at a faster rate than just about any other in the Midwest. At the same time, however, trade and technology shocks have claimed many of Central Indiana's middle class jobs, leaving some workers and families worse off. Central Indiana is hardly alone. New technologies and fierce trade competition are rapidly reshaping regional economies throughout the country and the access to opportunity they provide.

This report considers ways in which Central Indiana can advance economic opportunity by focusing regional economic growth and inclusion strategies on 'Opportunity Industries' - the industries that concentrate the region's good jobs and promising jobs. Good jobs provide middle-class wages and benefits. Promising jobs are entry-level jobs that, while they do not provide the pay or benefits of a good job, enable the workers who hold them to reach a good job within 10 years. The central findings from this report emphasize that Opportunity Industries are a critically important focal point for efforts to expand and support the middle class in Central Indiana: (1) Central Indiana needs more good and promising jobs than it provides, especially for its workers who do not have a bachelor's degree; (2) Focusing economic development strategies on the opportunity industries that concentrate Central Indiana's good jobs and can help close its opportunity deficit; (3) Preparing workers for good jobs may require new approaches to education, workforce development, and career pathways; and (4) Connecting people to promising entry-level jobs and training programs - especially women and people of color - is essential for advancing opportunity.

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At first, technologists issued dystopian alarms about the power of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to destroy jobs. Then came a correction, with a wave of reassurances. Now, the discourse appears to be arriving at a more complicated understanding, suggesting that automation will bring neither apocalypse nor utopia, but instead both benefits and stress alike. Such is the ambiguous and sometimes disembodied nature of the 'future of work' discussion. Hence the analysis presented here. Intended to bring often-inscrutable trends down to earth, the report develops both backward and forward-looking analyses of the impacts of automation over the years 1980 to 2016 and 2016 to 2030 to assess past and upcoming trends as they affect both people and communities in the United States. The report focuses on areas of potential occupational change rather than net employment losses or gains. Special attention is applied to digging beneath national top-line statistics to explore industry, geographical, and demographic variations. Finally, the report concludes by suggesting a comprehensive response framework for national and state-local policymakers.

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In recent decades, the diffusion of digital technology into nearly every business and workplace, also known as 'digitalization', has been remaking the U.S. economy and the world of work. The 'digitalization of everything' has at once increased the potential of individuals, firms, and society while also contributing to a series of troublesome impacts and inequalities, such as worker pay disparities across many demographics, and the divergence of metropolitan economic outcomes. In light of that, this report presents a detailed analysis of changes in the digital content of 545 occupations covering 90 per cent of the U.S. workforce in all industries since 2001. The analysis categorizes U.S. occupations into jobs that require high, medium or low digital skills and tracks the impacts of rapid change. The full report concludes with implications of the key findings and suggests ways communities can work with firms and workers to spread the benefits of digitalization while mitigating its potentially harmful effects.

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This report provides a new assessment of Nevada's [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] STEM workforce needs and supply as well as a review of steps that leaders throughout the state - whether in the public, private, or civic and philanthropic sectors - can take to develop a workforce capable of supporting continued growth through economic diversification. The report begins by explaining the importance of STEM skills and introduces Brookings' novel approach to the topic, which stresses the importance of blue collar as well as professional STEM activity. The analysis that follows uses this approach to assess current trends in private-sector employment across industries and current supply and demand tensions in the state's labor markets. The report then turns to the implications of these trends and sets out a series of key recommendations designed to help bring the state's education and workforce development systems into alignment with its economic development efforts. The report contends that Nevada can achieve its goal of developing a strong, diversified, and resilient economy that works for more Nevadans if it sets a bold vision for a STEM-intensive economy and workforce; aligns the delivery of education and workforce training to industry needs; and promotes STEM proficiency from the earliest grades all the way through postsecondary training.

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