TECHNOLOGY optimists argue that progress creates many more jobs than it destroys. They say fears over job losses are as misplaced as Luddite worries in the 19th century over the loss of jobs such as those of horse-and-buggy drivers or loom weavers. More recently, the introduction of ATMs also supports this view, since the machines haven't replaced bank tellers but broadened their roles into customer-relationship management.

Certainly, the skyscrapers in cities like Manila and Mumbai are filled with people doing new jobs that have moved them and many others from poverty into the middle class. In the last two decades, a wave of new professional jobs have been created in developing Asia, from those of research analysts to programmers, environmental scientists and data engineers.

But in many cases, even well-paid, new jobs are under threat. Not from technology itself, though artificial intelligence and high-performance robots are a challenge.