Today’s homework
There are 373,000 more employees working from home in the UK than there were 10 years ago – an increase of 27.7% – according to recent analysis published by trade union body the TUC to mark National Work from Home Day. The TUC’s research reveals that almost twice as many men as women work from home and the South West has the highest quota of homeworkers, with one in 12 working from home compared with one in 32 in Northern Ireland. Homeowners are 73% more likely to work at home than those who rent. And age-wise, 7.5% of 40- to 59-year-olds home work compared with only 3.4% of 20- to 29-year-olds.
Automating jobs
Artificial intelligence and automation will have a widespread but mixed impact on jobs, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and PA Consulting. The introduction of new technologies at work will see job opportunities grow by enhancing roles, employee skills and pay. But lack of planning risks reducing productivity improvements and leaving people behind. The report, People and Machines: From Hype to Reality, is based on a survey of 759 employers and their employees, and explores how AI and automation are being used in UK workplaces. Forty four per cent of employers introducing AI and automation believe the main jobs affected have become more secure, 18% say they have become less secure. But among employees, 54% say AI or automation has not helped them to do their job better.
The road to profit
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have thrown cold water on the notion that fleets of autonomous taxis will be cheaper to use than owning your own car. Focusing on San Francisco, Ashley Nunes and Kristen Hernandez calculate the potential price for taking an autonomous taxi as $1.58 to $6.01 per mile, versus $0.72 for owning a car. They consider a wide range of costs, including licensing, maintenance, fuel and insurance, as well as the cost of the vehicle itself, and base their calculations on the current rate of utilisation for conventional taxis. Utilisation would have to improve by almost 100% and margins reduce by 37% for autonomous vehicles to achieve cost parity.
Happy now?
Life satisfaction among UK citizens is the highest since surveys began in the 1970s, according to research by the Resolution Foundation, with 93% of Britons saying they are ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ satisfied with their lives. The report notes ‘a very marked upward drift’ since 2000, despite stagnating satisfaction during the financial crisis and since the EU referendum. The research is based on self-reported happiness in response to a number of questions. It finds higher-income households report a higher level of subjective wellbeing, but with diminishing returns as income increases. And while having a job is a key factor in increasing personal wellbeing, loss of wellbeing from losing a job outstrips the gain from getting work. Owning a home is also strongly correlated with wellbeing, with marked regional variations.
Pay more, get less
Funds with the highest fees perform worse than their lower cost competitors once fees are deducted, according to a study by investor rights group Better Finance – overturning the idea that active management is worth paying a premium for. The research involved analysis of 1,970 equity funds in Belgium, France and Luxembourg, looking at net returns over 10 years to 2017. It calculated that on average a 1% – or 100 basis point (bp) – increase in fees resulted in a 68bp decrease in performance above the benchmark. “Fees are nearly single-handedly to blame for the disappointing returns of many actively managed funds,” says Guillaume Prache, Managing Director of Better Finance.