Changing Jobs

Book excerpt: An essential guide to the future of work in Australia. For many Australians, rapid progress in artificial intelligence, robotics and automation is a growing anxiety. What will it mean for jobs? What will it mean for their kids’ futures? More broadly, what will it mean for equality in this country? Jim Chalmers and Mike Quigley believe that bursts in technology need not result in bursts of inequality, that we can combine technological change with the fair go. But first we need to understand what’s happening to work, and what’s likely to happen. This is a timely, informative and authoritative book about the changing face of work, and how best to approach it – at both a personal and a political level. Jim Chalmers is a Labor MP and Shadow Minister for Finance. Before being elected to parliament, Jim was the chief of staff to the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer. He has a PhD in political science and international relations and is the author of Glory Daze (2013). Mike Quigley spent 36 years with the major global telecommunications company Alcatel, including three years as its president and COO. He was the first employee of the Australian NBN company and its CEO for four years. He is now adjunct professor in the School of Computing and Communications at UTS.