Comparison of algorithms for error prediction in manufacturing with automl and a cost-based metric

In order to manufacture products at low cost, machine learning (ML) is increasingly used in production, especially in high wage countries. Therefore, we introduce our PREFERML AutoML system, which is adapted to the production environment. The system is designed to predict production errors and to help identifying the root cause. It is particularly important to produce results for further investigations that can also be used by quality engineers. Quality engineers are not data science experts and are usually overwhelmed with the settings of an algorithm. Because of this, our system takes over this task and delivers a fully optimized ML model as a result. In this paper, we give a brief overview of what results can be achieved with a state-of-the-art classifier. Moreover, we present the results with optimized tree-based algorithms based on RandomSearchCV and HyperOpt hyperparameter tuning. The algorithms are optimized based on multiple metrics, which we will introduce in the following sections. Based on a cost-oriented metric we can show an improvement for companies to predict the outcome of later product tests. Further, we compare the results from the mentioned optimization approaches and evaluate the needed time for them.

Why don’t employers hire long-term unemployed entitled to a wage subsidy? The employer’s perspective on subsidised employment

Despite a generous system with high wage subsidies for the long-term unemployed and newly arrived immigrants, many Swedish employers do not make use of this opportunity. This study seeks to increase knowledge of why some employers use the opportunity and others do not. Both register and survey data and combined register and survey data are used. One finding is that employers lack information about the subsidy programmes, although employers that had previously employed subsidised workers were much more likely to employ them in the future. Thus, a key policy question is how to present these subsidies to employers to reduce this barrier. The study also found that some employers hired people from these groups from altruistic motives. However, some employers responded that they would not employ a person entitled to a subsidy, regardless of the content of the subsidy scheme.

US job market bifurcation will restrict the recovery

Significance The recovery of the US labour market still lags that of the economy overall, although it mirrors its bifurcation. While the COVID-19 recession has ended for high-wage workers, job losses persist for low-wage workers, who are concentrated in in-person services. Impacts Changing skills requirements to meet the needs of digitising businesses will amplify tech sector labour shortages. Firms will reduce the qualifications required of candidates to fill vacancies, putting productivity at risk. High labour turnover will mean higher hiring and training costs for companies and loss of institutional knowledge. Labour shortages will limit companies' power to obstruct unionisation.

Assortative Matching or Exclusionary Hiring? The Impact of Employment and Pay Policies on Racial Wage Differences in Brazil

We measure the effects of firm policies on racial pay differences in Brazil. Non-Whites are less likely to be hired by high-wage firms, explaining about 20 percent of the racial wage gap for both genders. Firm-specific pay premiums for non-Whites are also compressed relative to Whites, contributing another 5 percent for that gap. A counterfactual analysis reveals that about two-thirds of the underrepresentation of non-Whites at higher-wage firms is explained by race-neutral skill-based sorting. Non-skill-based sorting and differential wage setting are largest for college-educated workers, suggesting that the allocative costs of discriminatory hiring and pay policies may be relatively large in Brazil. (JEL J15, J24, J31, J41, J46, J71, O15)

Labor Industry Allocation, Industrial Structure Optimization, and Economic Growth

Industrial structure optimization is an important explanatory variable of economic growth. The allocation of production factors among industries affects the evolution of industrial structure and then acts on economic growth. Labor force is one of the most important factors of production. In recent years, there has been a significant wage difference between different industries in China’s labor market, and the employees have shifted from low-wage industries to high-wage industries. Using the sample data of 282 prefecture-level cities from 2008 to 2018, this paper tests whether this wage-guided labor industry allocation will affect economic growth and whether there is an intermediary effect of industrial structure optimization. The empirical results show that the allocation of labor force to high-wage industries not only directly hinders economic growth but also indirectly hinders economic growth through the intermediary effect of industrial structure optimization. Furthermore, this paper makes a comparative study in different regions. The research conclusion shows that promoting the optimization of industrial structure and economic growth depends on correcting the price distortion of labor market and guiding the cross-industry rational allocation of labor force.

Minimum Wage and Household Consumption in Canada: Evidence from High and Low Wage Provinces

The minimum wage is a major factor for the successful implementation of much of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The present research will investigate whether minimum wage (MW) as a sustainable wage policy improves household consumption. Thus, a panel-based analysis comparing high wage (Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan) and low wage provinces (Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfound land/Lab, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec) is employed for the Canadian case within the study period from 1981 to 2019. We analyze the long-term and short-term effects of MW on household consumption using the Dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag techniques of the Pooled Mean Group, Dynamic Fixed Effects, and Mean Group estimators. Results show that the long-term impact of MW on household consumption is positive in both the low- and high-wage provinces. The short-term effect is negative in both wage groups, but not significant for the low-wage group. This offers significant debate on the relevance of the MW towards economic stabilization and consumption-led growth.

Decomposing Housing Unaffordability

A US household is considered ‘rent burdened’ when its rent exceeds 30% of its income. This simple ratio can be decomposed to better understand the sources of unaffordability across space. To demonstrate this new approach, I rewrite the equation for rent burden as a sum of four factors: rent gap, income gap, excess size cost, and demographic baseline, and show that US rental unaffordability is mostly the result of low incomes. Focusing on the New England region, however, I show that high rent is the primary cause of unaffordability in high-cost, high-wage metro areas. This decomposition can help affordability advocates prioritise strategies appropriately across space.

Architecture for A Post-Work World

47% to 80% of today’s jobs can be automated in the next twenty years. Most people continue to work in low skill, low wage, manual and service jobs. Only a small number are engaged in high-skilled, high wage, non-routine, cognitive jobs. What will happen to the surplus population- the workers who are most at risk of being replaced by automation? If left at the current trajectory, the private sector, via technological means, will take over traditional public services including: health, environment, and sovereignty. A dystopic condition will emerge in which governments are dissolved and the working class is exterminated. This thesis attempts, via the use of critical architecture, to challenge the hegemonic order of capitalism and align the future toward a post-work condition. The devised semiotic code is an innovative signifier for a new truth - a new language of rebellion against the established hierarchies of contemporary architecture.