What Sort of Job Market Will Exist in 2045?

[shado_temple]

Inspiration: IEEE Spectrum's podcast: The Job Market of 2045 [http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/at-work/tech-careers/the-job-market-of-2045/?utm_source=techalert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=012413]

We live in an interesting time: the advancement of technology is moving at a breakneck pace, with no signs of slowing down as it rapidly changes how we live and work. We've already automated many aspects of our lives, and the march of progress will only increase this amount. As a consequence, many folks who depended upon manufacturing and basic service industries lost their jobs to these technological advancements, being instead replaced by automated systems that could accomplish the tasks faster, more efficiently, and for less money (over time). For areas like the automotive industry, this doesn't come as a surprise to most; nearly everyone has seen the iconic robotic arms whirling about as they weld, seal, and otherwise assemble cars at a ridiculous pace. Within the next few years, however, a great deal of sources of employment may see significant workforce cuts, focusing instead on their robotic counterparts. These could range from the restaurant industry (taking orders, food delivery, even the cooking at "fast food" type places) to even the transportation business (trains, Semi-trailer trucks, delivery vans, mail cars, etc.), leaving many without stable places to work.

The TL;DR of the podcast transcript (linked above), as well as the paragraph I used to haphazardly summarize the article, is pretty simple: as technology improves to the point where automated systems can take over more and more of the "menial" tasks of life, what will the average person do for employment?

(Note: Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I both love and embrace technology; hell, as an aspiring computer engineer with a robotics focus, I hope to be the very person developing these advancements. I just can't help but ask this sort of question, as the future for those folks depending on these jobs becomes less and less certain.)

 

[Genocidicles]

Well I sort of hope we'll have a post-scarcity economy at that point (incredibly doubtful though), so there'll be no jobs at all.

 

[aba1]

This is something that has been concerning me as well. By the time we die I suspect we might have to completely alter our ways of living simply because there will not be enough jobs to support everyone and we as a society will have to figure out how to handle this. I mean what happens when there is only enough jobs for 1 in every 10 people we can't just have everyone starve on the street we will need some kind of new system.

People laugh at me but things like this make me happy to be in the media because creativity can't be replicated by a machine so it is one of the few fields guaranteed to exist and never die out. I was listening to a Ted talk one time and they were talking about future predictions and one was that the two safest fields were either in the media or in studying DNA as our understanding of DNA is only just about to start really taking off.

 

[Esotera]

Most likely there will still be jobs in essential services that can't be safely automated like some aspects of healthcare, and a lot of work in fixing automated things that aren't working properly (like software).

I think the assumption is that the individual will no longer go through one career their whole life, but probably change industries several times and lose jobs more frequently.

 

[IndomitableSam]

This is something that has been concerning me as well. By the time we die I suspect we might have to completely alter our ways of living simply because there will not be enough jobs to support everyone and we as a society will have to figure out how to handle this. I mean what happens when there is only enough jobs for 1 in every 10 people we can't just have everyone starve on the street we will need some kind of new system.

People laugh at me but things like this make me happy to be in the media because creativity can't be replicated by a machine so it is one of the few fields guaranteed to exist and never die out. I was listening to a Ted talk one time and they were talking about future predictions and one was that the two safest fields were either in the media or in studying DNA as our understanding of DNA is only just about to start really taking off.

On a similar vein, over the last few decades Librarianship has morphed into a technical job. We now design, create and use databases, interfaces and all sorts of programs. We're trying to be at the forefront of technological changes and events. A library now is a much different place than it was 10-15 years ago.

THe job field is really, really shrinking for us for traditinal jobs, but now if you want to beat out other people for a job you have to know coding and possibly some programming, as well as be able to work the media side of things.

Technically, I'm in charge of ordering books and magazines, but my job does everthing from web development, database management, accounting, online research, webinars, community programming (events, seminars, public forums, etc)... the list goes on. Checking books in and out isn't really much of a job anymore at all.

So, yeah. Get into tech, people.

 

[Da Orky Man]

This is something that has been concerning me as well. By the time we die I suspect we might have to completely alter our ways of living simply because there will not be enough jobs to support everyone and we as a society will have to figure out how to handle this. I mean what happens when there is only enough jobs for 1 in every 10 people we can't just have everyone starve on the street we will need some kind of new system.

People laugh at me but things like this make me happy to be in the media because creativity can't be replicated by a machine so it is one of the few fields guaranteed to exist and never die out. I was listening to a Ted talk one time and they were talking about future predictions and one was that the two safest fields were either in the media or in studying DNA as our understanding of DNA is only just about to start really taking off.

It might not be as safe as you think.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jul/01/iamus-computer-composes-classical-music

Apparently, a computer has now self-composed music that is considered good enough for top-class performers to play. There isn't anything instrinsic to humans that make us creative and computers not; when you get down to it, its only an algorithm.

 

[aba1]

This is something that has been concerning me as well. By the time we die I suspect we might have to completely alter our ways of living simply because there will not be enough jobs to support everyone and we as a society will have to figure out how to handle this. I mean what happens when there is only enough jobs for 1 in every 10 people we can't just have everyone starve on the street we will need some kind of new system.

People laugh at me but things like this make me happy to be in the media because creativity can't be replicated by a machine so it is one of the few fields guaranteed to exist and never die out. I was listening to a Ted talk one time and they were talking about future predictions and one was that the two safest fields were either in the media or in studying DNA as our understanding of DNA is only just about to start really taking off.

It might not be as safe as you think.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jul/01/iamus-computer-composes-classical-music

Apparently, a computer has now self-composed music that is considered good enough for top-class performers to play. There isn't anything instrinsic to humans that make us creative and computers not; when you get down to it, its only an algorithm.

To be fair music is considered to be a mathematical process but creating a story with original characters and plot line or original design and drawings are something that a computer simply will never be able to do unless we create AI. At best a computer could recreate images and such and do predetermined alterations. You still made a relevant point though music is a art form that is getting hit hard from tech especially with all the auto tuning.