Creative destruction: Emerging technology and the changing course of job creation

Abstract

Creative destruction is a term coined by Joseph Shumpeter to describe the growth in a capitalist economy that comes from disruptive innovation. A defining characteristic of this idea is that a loss of jobs due innovation will be made up by a net gain of new jobs created by that innovation. A reasonable argument could be made that the nature, pace, and geographic spread of a variety of emerging technologies, along with other contemporary factors, has fundamentally changed the process to the point where massive levels technological unemployment can be expected in the coming years, pending innovative new policy solutions. This essay is adapted from keynote address given at The World Summit on Technological Unemployment, convened by the World Technology Network, September 29, 2015, TIME Inc. Conference Center, New York City.