ABSTRACT
The capacity for more ‘intelligent’ programmes requires high-level computing skills, but it can also enable non-computer specialists to operate equipment performing sophisticated functions and can reduce the need for knowledge and discretion. Microelectronic technology is increasingly cheap and its office applications tend to be less complex and costly than in manufacturing. Banking provides an interesting example of the argument that adoption of new technology and corresponding labour displacement will be constrained in various ways, offsetting the imminence of the automated, and in this instance ‘cashless’, society. Certainly some new jobs are created directly as a result of introducing new technology into offices, as elsewhere, but the extent to which their numbers match those jobs actually displaced is, on current evidence, slight. And even if the overall skill level of the labour force is raised this is quite another matter both from upgrading individual employees.
