Hello, TechHubers. Have you ever wondered if your current job will exist in the next decade? If it will have the same importance as today or it will be displaced by automation and you’ll have to find another job? Well, by reading this article you’ll understand if your job is at risk to be automated or not.
Now, let’s get to it!
Things change – whether from developing technology, an influx of cheap labor due to globalization or changing patterns of immigration, or even just a change in consumer preferences.
Businesses come and go. A very small number continue to thrive over the years, and even some of the biggest names in business today won’t make it through the next century. Things change, and economies evolve. You cannot do anything about it. And as this happens, the jobs change, too.
Today, business owners consciously determine if their next hire is to be an individual or a machine. After all, machines can operate in the dark and don’t come with a lot of HR case law demanding holiday time off, personal injury, unnecessary overtime, chronic stress or anxiety.
I hope you agree with me that the world of work in the year 2030 will be radically different than it is now. Artificial Intelligence, automation, changing demographics and globalization will drive those changes. According to experts, about 45 percent of current occupations would fall into oblivion or will be as automated as possible by the end of the next decade. A McKinsey study reports that automation could displace between 400 million and 800 million people globally, and they will need to find new jobs. So, if you haven’t heard yet the phrase “technological unemployment,” brace yourself; you’ll hear it a lot in the years to come!
One thing is for sure: the world of work is about to be turned upside down, with both positive and negative results. Technology advancement has a huge effect on the changing areas of human activity because it is evolving at an increasingly rapid pace, rising productivity, improving lives, and reshaping our world.
But what happens to our jobs, though? While all of this could be in the name of progress, it also hurts many traditional professions, which are being increasingly automated. Consequently, it is necessary to avoid selecting an industry that is made up of job losses. Therefore, if you are considering a career in one of the following areas, then maybe you should think twice. Of course, these jobs I’ll present to you in a little while, will probably still exist in some way. (We even have horse-and-buggy drivers to this day.) But their roles are decreasing rapidly. For that reason, these may not be fields that you want to try to break into. Let’s take a quick look at the causes of the destruction of these jobs and let’s see if your job is on the endangered species list:
Robots taking jobs from manufacturing workers have been happening for decades, but today fast-moving machines can extend the challenge of job-killing automation to almost every workplace. Everything that can be automated will be, and it is fair to say that if the human touch is not necessary for a job, it will be automated away. In the coming decades, robots will reach every person’s life on earth at much greater rates than we ever thought possible.
The potential impact of automation on jobs varies by occupation and industry. Activities most susceptible to automation include physical ones in predictable environments. Automation will have a smaller impact on occupations involving people management, applying expertise, and social interactions, where machines are unable to equal human performance for now.
But now, let’s analyze the first threaten job we’ll be talking about today:
Cashiers
Over the last few years, there has been increased discussion about the possibility of a cashless world, with developments over contactless payments, Apple Pay and even cryptocurrencies like BitCoin being popular within mainstream culture. Although not everyone is on board, with some still choosing to use cash to better monitor their spending, one thing is for sure: the need for people to control the payments is no more. We are watching cashiers work vanish right in front of our eyes. It’s obvious to everyone who has recently been to a grocery store or big-box chain that the cashier’s days are numbered. With self-service tills and stations already a common role in supermarket chains and famous restaurants like McDonald’s, the cashier’s demise appears imminent. Amazon is taking this a step further by experimenting with stores that have no checkout lines at all.
Flying drones will be configured into thousands of different forms, shapes, and sizes. They can be low flying, high flying, tiny or huge, silent or noisy, super-visible or invisible, your best friend, or your worst enemy. But, without proper protections, drones can be dangerous. The same drones that deliver food and water can also deliver bombs and poison.
While drones will eliminate massive numbers of jobs, they will create a lot of new opportunities for professions that have not been invented yet.
That being said, here are a few of the jobs that drones will help disappear:
Farmers
Not all farmers will disappear within 10 years, but as we’ve seen over the past couple of generations, their role will diminish. Due to technological advancements and new ways of growing larger crops with less human labor required, fewer farmers are needed each year. Technology is making it easier for fewer people to produce more yield, and the popularity of indoor farms and even lab-grown meats will likely continue to increase. The new batch of farmers might resemble scientists and biologists more than anything. Other jobs like this may be crop monitors/consultants, spraying services, shepherds, land and field surveyors.
Postal Couriers
How long has it been since the last time you sent a letter by snail mail? Or paid your utility bills that way? Maybe years, right? Well, things don’t look good for the traditional postman or woman delivering letters every morning. This is mostly because the items they deliver won’t exist soon, with bills and statements accessed and paid electronically, junk mail moving to your email inbox instead of your letterbox, and the writing of letters long since a dying art. But even if somebody decides to send a letter, it will be delivered by drones.
Delivery
Millions of people deliver things professionally – be it pizzas, newspapers, or even people. But the clock is ticking on these jobs, possibly leaving tens of millions out of work because drones will deliver anything you’ll order and purchase in a much shorter time.
Despite growing fears, AI will reach our lives in many different ways ranging from smart devices to automated decision-makers.
Data collection and analysis are two types of tasks that can be performed better and faster with machines. It could displace vast volumes of labor—for example, in the processing of mortgage origination, paralegal work, accounting, and back-office transactions.
Jobs that will disappear because of Big Data and AI:
Bank Tellers
How often do you place your foot inside a bank building? Perhaps not too often, and that means trouble for the tellers at brick-and-mortar banks that process transactions. The emergence of online banking, payment systems, and ATMs significantly simplifies life by removing the need to look for a specialized institution and spend time queuing in it. You can open an account, pay utility bills, get a loan, transfer money to anywhere in the world, online, without leaving your home. ATMs are available 24/7 and are, therefore, very attractive to people whose work schedules don’t allow them to visit a bank during traditional “banker’s hours.” All of this means less foot traffic to banks, and not as much need for tellers.
Accountant
Do you know what’s the role of an accountant? It’s to go through the raw data and organize it. That’s like the favorite thing to do for algorithms. That’s the reason why repetitive jobs will be taken over by algorithms. Professions related to planning other people’s activities, making staffing, processing data, collecting information about employees, bookkeeping and other services will also remain “overboard”. Special applications for smartphones, computer programs, and specialized software perfectly fulfill such responsibilities. Today, many small private companies operate without an accountant, trusting their business to Internet servers, where accounting operations are performed rapidly and accurately.
Flight Attendant
By 2022, 7% less of the charming ladies (and gents) will welcome us on-board. As the air carriers compete to beat one another with more competitive prices and by reducing all sorts of possible costs to maximize profits, a whopping number of flight-attendant jobs have already been eliminated, and the hiring forecasts for the next decade show no positive changes. As most aircraft today are equipped with screens to show security rules and advanced automated security equipment, it is no longer appropriate to have multiple flight attendants on-board.
As DARPA launched its first Grand Challenge in 2004, the idea of autonomous driverless vehicles for everyone seemed like a scenario for a bad science fiction novel about the far distant future. But Google’s involvement in the last few years has made driverless cars a popular water cooler topic, causing virtually every transportation company in the world to launch its driverless research team working on autonomous features.
Between now and 2030, driverless features will pave the way for fully autonomous vehicles and the demand for drivers will begin to plummet. On-demand transportation services, where people can request a driverless vehicle at any time will become a norm of everyday metro living.
Drivers
There’s no secret that the leading automotive manufacturers have long focused on the production of electric and self-driving cars. Driverless cars might once have been the realm of science fiction, but with technological advancement, companies such as Waymo (Google’s sister company) are gradually moving closer to bringing one to market. It does not bode well for those who make a living out of driving, including taxi, bus and truck drivers. Try to think about the benefits of an autonomous truck that doesn’t need to stop for rest and it’s on the road 24/7. Already, Tesla has announced that the next generations of Tesla cars will be 100% autonomous and the major car manufacturers are aiming for self-driving cars and those who won’t will be left behind.
3D printing, also referred to as additive manufacturing, is a method in which three-dimensional parts and objects are created from a digital model. 3D printing makes use of “additive processes” to create an object by inserting layer upon layer of material until it is complete.
In the past, manufacturing depended on subtractive processes in which blocks of metal, wood, or other material had material extracted with drills, laser cutters, and other machines until the final component was complete. This involved skilled machine operators and material handlers.
The 3D printing eliminates both the need for skilled operators and the need for costly equipment. As a result, parts can be manufactured locally for less money than even the cheapest labor in foreign manufacturing plants.
This technology is already being used in many fields: jewelry, clothing, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many more.
Manufacturing Workers
As the Industrial Revolution struck, all the field-workers went to work in factories. Handcrafting the machines that would make our lives easier. But now, we’re seeing manufacturing decline at a fast pace. Factories have been automated, and many other manufacturing jobs have been relocated to countries where labor is cheaper. Now machines build other machines with less human interaction every year. Such jobs aren’t coming back, and they will, in all likelihood, continue to disappear.
Contour Crafting is a type of 3D printing using robotic arms and nozzles to push out layers of concrete or other materials, moving back and forth along a fixed path to fabricate large objects such as houses. It is a construction technology that has huge potential for making low-cost, customized buildings faster, reducing resources and pollution on the way.
This type of technology will have major implications on all construction, building, and home repair jobs.
Construction Workers
Technology is becoming more and more efficient and, therefore, the job site will need fewer specialist workers. Although the numbers are not clear, at least 200 million people are working in construction around the world and with developed countries, wanting to expand, you’d expect a number to increase. Well, it’s not and that’s because technology is getting more and more affordable, and that’s why there will be no more need for construction workers, carpenters, city planners, and home remodeling.
Although the prospects for these jobs might look grim, there is not all bad news. A report by tech giant Dell estimates that 85% of the jobs that will be available in 2030 have not even been invented yet. Many of the jobs in this list will also become redefined as opposed to entirely eradicated, with skills that can be applied to other roles.
Now, you may wonder if there will be enough work in the future. Well, today there is growing uncertainty about whether employees will have enough jobs, given the potential automation. But history would suggest that these fears might be unfounded: over time, labor markets adapt to changes in demand for workers from technological innovations, although at times with depressed real wages, with sufficient economic growth, innovation, and investment, there can be enough new job creation to offset the impact of automation.
Workers of the future will spend more time on activities that machines are less capable of, such as managing people, applying expertise, and communicating with others. They will spend less time on predictable physical activities and on gathering and analyzing data, where machines already exceed human performance. The skills and capabilities required will also shift, requiring more social and emotional skills and more advanced cognitive capabilities.
There are three categories of jobs that are difficult or even impossible to be automated:
Creative jobs – jobs that require genuine creativity, like an artist, a scientist or a business strategist. Through their nature, computers cannot and will never be able to reproduce true human inspiration.
Relationship-based jobs – these are roles that involve the building and nurturing of complex relationships with other people, such as doctors and other medical professionals, or business professionals who may need to establish close relationships with clients.
Unpredictable jobs – these are jobs that are likely to throw up unexpected situations, such as those faced by the emergency services, or trades that may be called out for emergencies in unusual locations such as plumbers or gas engineers.
If you wonder what can be done today in order not to be left overboard and not to fall into the number of unclaimed personnel, congratulations – the first step has already been taken! Well, you have to develop specific skills you can start to develop right now and possess some qualities. Employers need “universal soldiers” whose primary weapon is creativity, critical thinking, initiative, negotiating ability, flexibility and stress resistance, analytical thinking, and fast learning. I recommend you to start investing in yourself: the best investment is in your knowledge, skills and, of course, health.
What do you think about the disappearing jobs we talked about today? Do you agree with me that these jobs will be automated in the next decade or not really? Let me know in the comment section below.
Stay tuned for the upcoming article!
Dacă ai ajuns până aici și nu te-am plictisit, te rog să te abonezi newsletter-ului nostru! Multumesc 🙂
