We need to track more than GDP to understand how automation is transforming work

Governments and business don't have the right information to understand what the future of work really looks like

A new report by the US-based National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine suggests that not only has the automation of work barely begun but that the ways in which we measure the effects of technology on employment are inadequate to the task.

The authors argue that to understand how automation is transforming our workplaces, we need better ways of tracking technological change. Put simply, they are saying that if we are what we measure - that is, if policy is driven by the information we collect - then we are collecting the wrong information.

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