Staff shortages are one of the most consequential by-products of the latest coronavirus variant, Omicron. Health care, aviation, education and dining are among the industries scrambling for employees to provide essential services.
As the pandemic enters its third year, robots and automation are becoming a necessity rather than a novelty, with a labour market in flux.
This is according to geopolitical futurist Abishur Prakash, who joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner this week to talk about the future of work and the role of technology.
Mr Prakash is a co-founder of the Centre for Innovating the Future, an advisory firm based in Toronto, Canada. His latest book is called The World Is Vertical: How Technology Is Remaking Globalisation.
In this episode
Is 2022 going to be any different? (0m 51s)
Changing trends in the labour force (3m 19s)
Crafting the future with automation and robots (11m 02s)
The fight for talent (18m 48s)
Read more
UK's Omicron surge causes hospital staff shortages
Workers sleep at power plant to stop Omicron cutting Austria's lights
UAE residents want automation in their homes, but not in health and education
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Asia Cup Qualifier
Final
UAE v Hong Kong
Live on OSN Cricket HD. Coverage starts at 5.30am
