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JUDY WOODRUFF: Some questions: 
Will robots take our jobs 
or work alongside us?

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Are we doing enough to educate 
the next generation of workers?

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How soon will technology 
radically change the work force?

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These are just some of the 
questions we will be exploring 
next week in a series called

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The Future of Work.

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Tonight, economics correspondent 
Paul Solman starts us off by 
putting a few of those concerns

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into perspective.

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It's part of our weekly 
series Making Sense.

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PAUL SOLMAN: First, the 
job scare story you have 
likely heard: millions 
of humans replaced

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by robots, 75 million of 
them within five years, says 
the World Economic Forum.

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But it then adds, 133 
million new jobs may be 
created at the same time.

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That's what's called 
creative destruction.

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Here's Carl Frey of 
Oxford University:

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CARL BENEDIKT FREY, Oxford 
University: This has -- theme 
has been recurring from time

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to time for the past 200 years.

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If you go back to the 
Roman Empire, there 
were people expressing 
concerns over technological

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unemployment as well.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Why?

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Well, for one thing, 
losing a job really hurts.

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Roman Emperor Vespasian built 
the Coliseum without the help 
of labor-saving technology

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to move heavy columns because 
it would displace manual 
labor, threaten civil unrest.

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Remember the Luddites, who broke 
the high-tech textile looms of 
the early 1800s to save their

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jobs, and were hanged 
for their efforts?

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The Washington Post 
employees who sabotaged 
automated presses in 1975?

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And it's not hard to understand 
why workers are so resistant 
to creative destruction.

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Here's MIT's Andrew McAfee:

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ANDREW MCAFEE, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology: 
Change is scary.

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We humans have a bias 
for the status quo.

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We don't want the boat 
rocked really hard.

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And it's always easier to focus 
on the destruction part than 
the creation part, for a lot of

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obvious reasons.

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It's easy to see this 
job being automated away.

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It's not as immediately clear 
what kinds of jobs, what kinds 
of opportunities are being

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created by technology.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Study after 
study has found significant 
physical and mental 
health effects of even

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one layoff, even when the 
person found another job.

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And Oxford's Carl Frey 
has estimated that almost 
half of U.S. jobs are 
at risk of elimination.

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CARL BENEDIKT FREY: If economic 
history provides guidance, it 
suggests that we will continue

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to create a lot of 
new jobs as well.

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But, even if we do, there's 
no assurance that the people 
that lose out to automation in

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the short run are going 
to be the ones employed 
in the new jobs that 
emerge in the long run.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Another 
problem with creative 
destruction, technological 
progress, automation,

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robots, they all threaten 
to amplify inequality, 
creating more high-paying 
jobs, possibly more

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low-paying jobs, but not 
nearly enough in between.

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ANDREW MCAFEE: We see technology 
creating really good jobs, 
very high-paying jobs, really

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great careers.

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User interface designer 
is a great job, data 
scientist, machine learning 
specialist, product

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manager at a high-tech company.

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These are really, really 
good jobs, upper-middle-class 
and above kinds of jobs.

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There's also a huge bulge of 
jobs being created down at 
the low end of the pay scale.

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And these are typically 
in-person jobs.

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They're typically service jobs.

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So, we are not creating 
this big group of great 
middle-class jobs.

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PAUL SOLMAN: There's at 
least one more question 
worth exploring about 
the future of work:

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How fast are things 
going to change?

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Are the robots and driverless 
trucks just around the corner, 
or still miles and miles

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down the road?

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Again, MIT's McAfee.

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ANDREW MCAFEE: Lots of 
technology changes are going to 
happen quicker than we think.

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And I say that for 
two main reasons.

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The first one is that 
all the elements, all 
the building blocks of 
really powerful technology

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platforms and companies, 
all those building blocks 
are improving super quickly.

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They got networks, processors, 
storage, bandwidth.

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And innovators and entrepreneurs 
are combining those building 
blocks in really interesting

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ways, and they're doing 
it faster and cheaper 
than ever before.

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PAUL SOLMAN: And so these are 
the questions we will explore 
in next week's Future of Work

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series.

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Can a small Kentucky community 
that once relied on jobs of 
the past be transformed into a

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hub of jobs of the future?

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Will technology and 
automation hurt minority 
populations the most?

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Are robots going to take 
our jobs, or will robot 
helpers, cobots, wind 
up working alongside

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us?

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Are truck drivers toast?

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And, if so, in what time frame?

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Finally, how much demand will 
there be for the humanities 
in a high-tech economy?

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We will try to answer 
those questions next week.

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For now, I'm economics 
correspondent Paul Solman.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: So, don't 
miss our entire series 
The Future of Work.

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That's next Monday through 
Friday on the "PBS NewsHour."