Have you ever thought about all the jobs that don’t exist anymore? Jobs that due to the advancement in technology have become out-dated and unnecessary. Things that you don’t even think about like how you wake up in the morning to go to work; during the industrial revolution Knocker-uppers were hired to wake people up in the morning as a cheaper and more reliable alternative to the alarm clock.
Developments in technology are transforming the way we live our lives. Just in the last 15 years we have changed the way we read news, listen to music, the way shop and communicate with our friends and family.
Workplaces are constantly changing to adapt to and take advantage of new technologies. Self-checkout machines have marked their presence within the UK’s largest grocery retailers, highly competitive holiday website aggressively undercutting travel agents, automated factory outlets, with minimal human intervention place many warehouse and manufacturing jobs at risk of disappearing. A study from Oxford University suggested that 35% of existing UK jobs are at risk of automation in the next 20 years with the above representing only a small handful of the sectors that could lead to employees becoming obsolete. The question is what will happen when these jobs have disappeared?
Like previous generations many people growing up now will do jobs that don’t yet exist. As technology changes, job opportunities are opening up in new fields.
The skillsets that are considered important will change and the need to develop new skills to compete in the future. The World Economic Forum is suggesting that Single-skillset jobs will decrease for example that mathematical skills can easily be automated. Creativity with a combination of interpersonal and mathematical skills will be important in order to benefit from the changes in technology.
Five jobs we may see in the future are:
- By 2020 the total global market for VR technology is expected to be worth $40bn and Virtual Habitat Designers will work to design these Virtual Reality worlds.
- In the future Ethical Technology Advocates will work as go-betweens and negotiate our relationships with robots.
- IoT (Internet of Things) Data Creatives will sift through the data being generated by devices in everyday items in our homes and offices to tell us what that information is saying.
- In the future when our planet is struggling to cope and traditional conservation isn’t enough, Rewilding Strategists will stitch together ecosystems to create resilient landscapes.
- Freelance biohackers will work on open-source software platforms and will along with thousands of others in virtual teams help fuel major scientific breakthroughs.
Moving even further into the future we might find people competing to work as Tour Guides showing tourists around space although that’s something our Bluetowndroid would love to see!
