The pandemic may speed up job replacement.

大流行可能会加快工作更换速度。

Before Covid-19 swept through America, low-wage workers and activists were battling in the states to raise the minimum wage, often referred to as the Fight for $15. Consequently, some states have raised the minimum wage. Maryland’s minimum wage will be raised over time, eventually reaching $15 by 2025. However, these same low-wage employees, at some point, were deemed “essential” during the pandemic, illuminating the reality that they’re the ones keeping the economy, and our lives, afloat. For a while, essential employees were given hazard pay, which temporarily increased their pay. Months into the pandemic, companies cut essential employees’ hazard pay.

乙 EFORE Covid-19通过美国，低薪工人和积极分子在美国进行对抗，以提高最低工资标准，通常被称为扑灭$ 15横扫。 因此， 一些州提高了最低工资 。 马里兰的最低工资将随着时间的推移而提高， 到 2025年 最终达到15美元 。 但是，在流行期间，这些相同的低薪员工有时被视为“必需品”，这说明他们是保持经济，我们的生活不断发展的员工这一现实。 有一段时间，基本雇员获得了危险津贴，这暂时增加了他们的工资。 在大流行的几个月后， 公司削减了基本雇员的危险津贴 。

The problems continue to mount for low wage essential workers. Companies have cut ties with thousands of low-wage essential workers due to COVID-19. Yet, there still is an underlying reality at play, one that existed before COVID-19. Some low wage jobs, already ripe with employment insecurity, are still in the queue to be automated, and COVID-19 could speed up the process.

低薪基本工人的问题继续存在。 由于COVID-19，公司与数千名低薪基本工人建立了联系。 但是，仍存在一个潜在的现实，在COVID-19之前就已经存在。 一些已经缺乏就业保障的低薪工作仍在等待自动化，COVID-19可以加快这一过程 。

In 2019, a Brookings Institution’s study showed that foodservice jobs — cooks and food fast workers, for example — have a 70 to 100 percent chance of automation. Such job replacements (or, what some economists refer to as employment transformation) disproportionately affect African American and Latino communities.

布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)在2019年的一项研究表明，餐饮服务工作(例如厨师和快餐店工作人员)有70％到100％的自动化机会。 这样的工作替代(或某些经济学家所说的就业转变)对非裔美国人和拉丁裔社区造成了不成比例的影响。

The talk of automation negatively impacting Black and Latinos communities has been well documented over several years. Back in 2018, the Intersection Magazine, along with Black media outlets, wrote about it.

关于自动化对黑人和拉丁裔社区产生负面影响的言论已经记录了好几年。 早在2018年，《 交汇杂志》 ( Intersection Magazine )和Black媒体就对此进行了报道。

“Even before COVID-19, Amazon, as well as other retailers, has been on a mission to transform labor.”

“甚至在COVID-19之前，亚马逊以及其他零售商就已经承担了转变劳动力的使命。”

机器人常态 (The Normalcy of Robots)

Americans have been living with automation for a while. For example, fast food, retail, and grocery stores have implemented self-checkout robots. Daron Acemoglu, professor of economics at MIT, who referred to self-checkout tech as “so-so technologies,” said this kind of tech has a worsened customer shopping experience.

一个美国人一直在与自动化生活在一起。 例如，快餐店，零售店和杂货店已经实现了自助结账机器人。 麻省理工学院经济学教授达伦·阿斯莫格卢(Daron Acemoglu)将自助结账技术称为“ 一般技术 ”，他说这种技术使客户的购物体验恶化了。

“So-so technologies are cost-saving devices for firms that just reduce their costs a little but don’t increase productivity by much. They create the usual displacement effect but don’t benefit other workers that much, and firms have no reason to hire more workers or pay other workers more,” he said in an interview with World Economic Forum, an international non-profit organization.

对于企业来说，马马虎虎的技术是节省成本的设备，它们只是降低了一点成本， 但并没有大大提高生产率。 它们会产生通常的流离失所效应，但不会给其他工人带来太多好处，而且公司没有理由雇用更多工人或向其他工人支付更多工资。”他在接受国际非营利组织世界经济论坛采访时说。

Even before COVID-19, Amazon, as well as other retailers, has been on a mission to transform labor. Amazon has opened approximately 26 Amazon Go cashier-less convenience stores around the nation. The company has also opened its first cashier-less grocery store in Seattle, Washington, and it plans to open more stores in various gentrified cities throughout America (Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia). Amazon is trying to sell its technology to other retailers, including Target. Prince George’s County has about 8 Target stores that exist in wealthy (as well as the mixed-income) neighborhoods near the nation’s capital. During the pandemic, Walmart — which, according to the latest data has 1.4 million employees (21 percent African American, 15 percent Latinos, 5 percent Asian American and Pacific Islanders and 1 percent Native and Alaskan Indian) — opened its first cashier-less store in upstate New York. Additionally, some Walmarts use robots to clean floors, stock shelves, scan products, and unload and sort packages on trucks. At best, these robots work alongside employers. The retail chain 7-eleven is also interested in cashier-less technology. These are stores that often exist in lower-income neighborhoods as well as others. David Autor, co-chair at MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, and Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, wrote in an essay that Boston warehouses used robots to disinfect them, and due to the coronavirus, meatpacking plants could accelerate the adoption of robotic automation. The coronavirus has rapidly spread within meatpacking plants, causing workers to quarantine at home. A host of other retail and grocery stores are also looking to implement automation, which also impacts rural America.

甚至在COVID-19之前，亚马逊以及其他零售商就已经承担了转变劳动力的使命。 亚马逊在全国范围内开设了约26家Amazon Go无收银员便利店。 该公司还在华盛顿州西雅图市开设了第一家无收银员杂货店，并计划在美国各个高档城市(芝加哥，旧金山，华盛顿特区和费城)开设更多商店。 亚马逊正试图将其技术出售给包括Target在内的其他零售商。 乔治王子郡(Prince George's County)在该国首都附近的富人区(以及混合收入区)拥有约8家Target商店 。 在大流行期间， 沃尔玛(Walmart )开设了第一家无收银门店， 沃尔玛拥有140万名员工( 21％的非洲裔美国人 ，15％的拉丁裔，5％的亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民以及1％的本地人和阿拉斯加印第安人)在纽约北部。 此外，一些沃尔玛使用机器人清洁地板，货架，扫描产品以及在卡车上卸下和分类包裹。 这些机器人充其量只能与雇主合作。 零售连锁店7-11对无收银员技术也很感兴趣。 这些是通常在低收入社区以及其他地区也存在的商店。 麻省理工学院未来工作专责小组联席主席大卫·奥托(David Autor)和麻省理工学院未来工作专责小组执行主任伊丽莎白·雷诺兹(Elisabeth Reynolds)在一篇文章中写道，波士顿仓库使用机器人对其进行消毒。冠状病毒，肉类包装厂可以加快机器人自动化的采用 。 冠状病毒已在肉类包装工厂内Swift传播，导致工人在家中隔离。 许多其他零售和杂货店也正在寻求实现自动化，这也影响了美国乡村地区 。

“Americans have lost over 8,011,181 low wage jobs, according to the Urban Institute.”

“根据城市研究所的数据，美国人失去了8011181个低薪工作。”

工作荒野和恢复缓慢 (The Job Wilderness, and Slow Recovery)

During the spread of the pandemic, Americans have lost over 8,011,181 low wage jobs, according to the Urban Institute. Nationally, the food and accommodation industry has suffered the most with 2,846,224 unemployed. The health care and social assistance industry follows with 868,542 unemployed, followed by retail with 615,369 unemployed.

d uring大流行的蔓延，美国人已经失去了超过8011181个低工资的工作，根据城市学院 。 在全国范围内，食品和住宿业的失业人数最多，为2,846,224人。 卫生保健和社会援助行业紧随其后，失业人数为868,542，其次是零售业，失业人数为615,369。

Back in May, before leaving his position, Andrew Schaufele, former head of the Bureau of Revenue Estimates, prophesied that due to the pandemic low wage employees in Maryland would be the most impacted. He was right. Low-wage workers Prince George’s County, Maryland — a mostly African-American middle-class county with deep pockets of poverty — have lost thousands of jobs. (The county leads the state of Maryland in confirmed coronavirus cases). Businesses in Prince George’s County have fired, or let go, 29,142 low-income employees. Of that, 11,115 are within the food and accommodation services, 3,626 health care and social assistance employees, and 2,819 are retail employers, which serve as the top-three jobs eliminated, according to the latest data. In addition to all of this, women This is compounded by low workers, Schaufele said, that never returned to the job market during the first recession. Prince George’s County’s unemployment rate is 9.9 percent, down from 10.9, which is higher than the state average (8.3 percent).

早在5月份，在离开职位之前，美国收入估算局前局长安德鲁·绍弗勒(Andrew Schaufele) 预言 ，由于大流行，马里兰州的低薪雇员将受到最大影响。 他是对的。 低薪工人马里兰州乔治王子郡县(这是一个主要是非洲裔美国人的中产阶级县，拥有大量的贫困地区)已经失去了数千个工作。 ( 该县在确诊的冠状病毒病例中领先马里兰州 )。 乔治王子郡的企业已解雇或放开了29,142名低收入雇员。 根据最新数据，其中有11115人在食品和住宿服务业，3626位医疗保健和社会救助员工以及2819位零售业雇主，这是被淘汰的前三名工作。 除了所有这些之外，肖夫费勒还说，女性的这种情况还伴随着低下的劳动力，在第一次经济衰退期间，女性从未重返就业市场。 乔治王子县的失业率从10.9下降到9.9％，高于全州平均水平(8.3％)。

Schaufele said that the recovery for low wage workers will be slow — and that the state has an opportunity to reinvest in retraining opportunities.

绍夫费尔说，低薪工人的复苏将很缓慢-该州有机会在再培训机会上进行再投资。

Due to the lackluster implementation of laws to mitigate the spread of the virus, it has begun to spread again. States are reverting to earlier restrictions to prohibit the spread of the virus. Such restrictions slow down hiring and rehiring of low wage workers.

由于缺乏缓解病毒传播的法律实施，该病毒已开始再次传播。 各国都在恢复先前的限制，以禁止病毒传播。 这样的限制减慢了低薪工人的雇用和再雇用。

The Paycheck Protection Program funds did stop some companies from closing and to continue to pay employees for a while. However, employers still fired their employees. Back in June, CNBC reported that a National Federation of Independent Business study found that 14 percent of businesses would fire their employees after using up Paycheck Protection Program funds. However, the latest numbers show that it has turned out to be 22 percent. Low-wage workers may linger in the unemployment wilderness, which may eventually add to poverty in certain states. A second coronavirus stimulus package may be on the verge of passing. Recently, the president has signed executive orders pushing out parts of the relief for Americans. However, as predicted the president slashed the extra unemployment insurance benefit from $600 to $400. To make matters worse, not all will who apply for unemployment receive the extra benefits. Such a seemingly minor drift from $600 to $400 will affect will disproportionately affect African Americans and Latinos.

薪酬保护计划的资金确实阻止了一些公司倒闭，并继续为员工支付一段时间。 但是，雇主仍然解雇了雇员。 早在6月， CNBC报道了一项全国独立企业联合会的研究发现，有14％的企业在用完薪水保护计划资金后会解雇他们的雇员。 但是，最新数字显示，事实证明它是22％ 。 低薪工人可能会在旷野中徘徊，最终可能会加剧某些州的贫困状况。 第二轮冠状病毒刺激方案可能即将通过。 最近，总统签署了行政命令，为美国人提供了部分救济。 然而，正如预测的那样，总统将额外的失业保险金从600美元削减至400美元。 更糟的是， 并非所有申请失业救济的人都会得到额外的福利。 从600美元到400美元的这种看似很小的变动将对非裔美国人和拉丁美洲人产生不成比例的影响 。

But it’s not only the lack of unemployment funds, nor the lack of funds to pay low wage employees, it’s also telework — among high skilled/ white-collar jobs — that is furthering job insecurity.

但是，不仅缺少失业资金，也没有足够的资金支付低薪雇员，而且，在高技能/白领工作中，远程办公也加剧了工作的不安全感。

“If [telework] displaces a meaningful fraction of professional office time and business travel, the accompanying reductions in office occupancy, daily commuting trips, and business excursions will mean steep declines in demand for building cleaning, security, and maintenance service; hotel workers and restaurant staff; taxi and ride-hailing drivers; and myriad other workers who feed, transport, clothe, entertain, and shelter people when they are not in their own homes,” Autors and Reynolds wrote.

“如果[远程办公]取代了专业办公时间和商务旅行的重要部分，则随之而来的办公空间减少，日常通勤旅行和商务旅行的减少将意味着对建筑物清洁，安全和维护服务的需求急剧下降； 酒店工作人员和饭店工作人员； 出租车和叫车司机； 以及其他无家可归的人，他们在不在家中时就提供食物，运输，衣服，娱乐和庇护所。”

They add: “A substantial, long-run demand contraction in these services will mean significant job loss — or lock-in of existing COVID-induced job losses — and a sustained period of labor market adjustment.”

他们补充说 ：“这些服务的长期长期需求萎缩将意味着大量的工作机会流失，或者锁定现有的由COVID引发的工作机会流失，以及持续的劳动力市场调整期。”

(Low-wage jobs’ insecurity is further compounded with uncertainty when companies increase the minimum wage because it is likely that those positions will soon be automated ).

(当公司提高最低工资时，低薪工作的不安全感进一步变得不确定，因为这些职位可能很快就会实现自动化 )。

However, telework — according to Autor and Reynolds — has an economic upside for the companies that pay a lot of money for employers’ travels and meals. It reduces company expenses for employers and employees.

但是，根据Autor和Reynolds的说法，远程办公对那些为雇主的旅行和餐饮支付大量费用的公司而言具有经济上的优势。 它减少了雇主和雇员的公司支出。

“Not only is providing and maintaining physical offices costly for employers, but also the need to be physically present in offices imposes substantial indirect costs on the employee,” Autor and Reynolds wrote.

Autor和Reynolds写道：“不仅为雇主提供和维持实物办公室成本高昂，而且在办公室中实地办公的需求还给员工带来了巨大的间接成本，”。

There are is another phenomena. White-collar jobs are being replaced by artificial intelligence, not automation. This has created openings within, what is known as, high-skilled jobs. Though these openings in high skilled jobs are present, it doesn’t necessarily mean that low-skilled workers have or will have the opportunity to fill the void. Low wages workers — unless they have received specialized training courses and or completed a digital literacy program- lack the varied skills to work as a data analyst, in upper management, visual data design, etc. Employers often fill these high skilled job vacancies with current employees with similar skills, do in-house training for a new position, or hire temporary contractors, which often saves them money.

还有另一种现象。 白领工作正在被人工智能取代，而不是自动化 。 这在所谓的高技能工作中创造了空缺。 尽管存在高技能职位的这些空缺，但这并不一定意味着低技能工人有或将有机会填补这一空白。 除非他们已经接受过专门的培训课程或完成了数字扫盲计划，否则低薪工人缺乏担任数据分析师，高层管理人员，视觉数据设计等方面的各种技能。雇主通常会用当前的方法填补这些高技能的职位空缺具有类似技能的员工，为新职位进行内部培训或雇用临时承包商，这通常可以节省金钱。

“Digital literacy and problem-solving skills are fundamental to weathering current and future technological disruptions.” — Molly Bashay, now a senior policy analyst at the Center For Law and Social Policy.

“数字素养和解决问题的能力对于抵御当前和未来的技术中断至关重要。” —莫莉·巴瑟(Molly Bashay)，现为法律和社会政策中心的高级政策分析师。

政策与数字素养 (Policy and Digital Literacy)

Improving workers’ skills, aka upskilling, for this not-so-new world of work is widely talked about as a solution. But it’s not only that workers need to improve digital skills, but they also, according to Molly Bashay, former National Skills Coalition policy analyst, need to become digitally literate. For example, many workers may know how to use Google (digital skill) to check an email, search, and have basic knowledge about spreadsheets, etc. However, there is a difference in knowing how to use Google and knowing how to use its many applications (data collection and visualization tools) to fulfill a job requirement.

我提高了工人的技能，也就是说提高技能，因为作为一个解决方案，人们广泛地讨论了这个不太新的工作世界。 但是，不仅工人需要提高数字技能，而且据前国家技能联盟政策分析师莫莉·巴斯海(Molly Bashay)所说，他们还需要具备数字素养。 例如，许多工作人员可能会知道如何使用Google(数字技能)来检查电子邮件，进行搜索，并具有有关电子表格的基本知识等。但是，知道如何使用Google和知道如何使用Google会有所不同应用程序(数据收集和可视化工具)来满足工作要求。

The National Skills Coalition recently released a study — written by Molly Bashay that recommends policy solutions that will ensure that everyone has access to digital learning skills. Bashay estimates that 48 million people lack digital literacy. Bashay advocates for, among other things: a federal commitment to occupational digital literacy; create a new national grant program, or Digital Literacy Upskilling Grants,” which could expand access to beneficial digital literacy programs, and for the federal government to “develop a measurable national standard for industry-specific digital upskilling efforts.”

国家技能联盟(National Skills Coalition)最近发布了一项研究 ， 该研究由Molly Bashay撰写 ，提出了建议政策解决方案，以确保每个人都能获得数字学习技能。 Bashay估计有4800万人缺乏数字素养。 Bashay倡导以下方面：联邦对职业数字素养的承诺； 创建一个新的国家补助计划或“数字素养提升技能补助”，这可以扩大获得有益的数字素养计划的机会，并使联邦政府“为特定行业的数字素养工作制定可衡量的国家标准。”

“Digital literacy and problem-solving skills are fundamental to weathering current and future technological disruptions,” wrote Bashay, now a senior policy analyst at the Center For Law and Social Policy. “…. Workers also need full access to digital devices and reliable home broadband connections to be fully effective in a digitalizing economy. Even before the pandemic, the nature of work was already transforming to depend on new digital systems, processes, and skills. For many industries — especially those with more highly automatable roles or more easily digitized functions — digital skills are a vital threshold competency for the new hires and incumbent workers businesses depend on. Without these skills, workers are being left behind.”

“数字素养和解决问题的能力是抵御当前和未来技术中断的基础，”现为法律与社会政策中心高级政策分析师的巴希尔写道。 “……。 员工还需要完全访问数字设备和可靠的家庭宽带连接，才能在数字化经济中充分发挥作用。 甚至在大流行之前，工作的性质已经在转变，以依赖于新的数字系统，流程和技能。 对于许多行业，尤其​​是那些具有更高自动化角色或更易于数字化功能的行业而言，数字技能是新员工和企业所依赖的现任工人至关重要的门槛。 没有这些技能，工人就被抛在后面。”

If implemented, such policies would give local organizations the funds they need to reach their communities to provide low-cost and even free classes. These classes would reach what I deem as the in-between people; community members who may have lost their jobs during COVID-19, and those who do not have the money nor the time to attend full-time college courses. However, they may have the time to attend a free self-paced digital literacy class.

如果得以实施，这样的政策将为当地组织提供他们需要的资金，以达到其社区以提供低成本甚至免费的课程。 这些课程将达到我认为的中间人群。 在COVID-19期间可能失去工作的社区成员，以及没有钱也没有时间去参加全日制大学课程的社区成员。 但是，他们可能有时间参加免费的自定进度的数字素养课程。

Other solutions, The Intersection reported, could come from HBCUs. Andre Perry, author, Brooking Institution Fellow, and education columnist, once wrote that HBCUs should partner their college campuses as tech startup labs.

The Intersection报道，其他解决方案可能来自HBCU。 布鲁金学会研究员，教育专栏作家，作家安德烈·佩里 ( Andre Perry)曾经写道，HBCU应该与他们的大学校园合作，作为技术创业实验室。

As far back as 2016, Google committed to working with HBCUs, and Hispanic or Latino serving institutions to create a tech pipeline. The company created the Tech Exchange, an exchange program that teaches tech courses at its Google campus. Apple has partnered with HBCUs, mainly in Southern states, to teach students coding. Tesla just announced its partnership with Houston-Tillotson, an HBCU in Austin Texas, a gentrified city that is now a booming tech hub, to hire students as interns, and apprentices at the company.

早在2016年，Google便致力于与HBCU，西班牙裔或拉丁美洲裔服务机构合作，以建立技术渠道。 该公司创建了Tech Exchange ，这是一个交流计划，可以在Google校园内教授技术课程。 苹果公司与主要在南部各州的HBCU 合作 ，教学生编码。 特斯拉刚刚宣布与德克萨斯州奥斯汀市的HBCU休斯敦-蒂洛森(Houston-Tillotson)建立合作伙伴关系，得克萨斯州现已成为一个蓬勃发展的技术中心，如今已发展成为一个高科技中心，将聘请学生担任该公司的实习生和学徒。

“The employment opportunities created by Tesla will provide a direct career path with access to a full array of benefits that align with HT’s Career Pathways Initiative, which is focused on preparing students for mid-to-high-skilled careers in a dynamic and innovative global environment,” HT said in the welcome letter, according to CleanTechnica.com.

“特斯拉创造的就业机会将提供直接的职业道路，并获得与HT的职业道路计划相一致的各种福利，该计划致力于为学生提供充满活力和创新的全球中高技能职业的培训据CleanTechnica.com称，HT在欢迎信中说。

To solve this growing unemployment problem, and skills gap, there will need to be collaboration among local Black institutions, and local and federal policy that curves the negative effects of economic effects on the African American, and Latino communities. As for now, as COVID-19 continues to surge, and as technologists and some companies invest in robots, jobs are disappearing, reshaping the way we work and not.

为了解决这一日益严重的失业问题和技能差距，需要在当地的黑人机构之间进行合作，并在地方和联邦政策之间做出弯曲，以扭转经济影响对非裔美国人和拉丁裔社区的负面影响。 就目前而言，随着COVID-19的持续激增以及技术人员和一些公司对机器人的投资，工作正在消失，从而改变了我们的工作方式，而不是在改变我们的工作方式。

Delonte Harrod is the CEO, editor, and reporter at The Intersection Magazine. If you have story tips or suggestions contact:[email protected]

Delonte Harrod是《 The Intersection》杂志的首席执行官，编辑和记者。 如果您有故事提示或建议，请联系： [email protected]