These include personal care workers, plumbers, consultants and, I am hoping, central bankers. What is particularly important to consider this time is the impact that technological progress could have on income inequality. 5 Technological advances may lead to higher incomes for workers whose skills are complemented by the technology, but not for those whose skills are substituted by it.
The first wave of information technology in the 1980s and 1990s is a case in point. Educated professionals like scientists and architects could use their skills more productively, while many less-educated workers, like bank tellers and travel agents, saw their jobs being displaced by technology.