제 10 호 Lost Jobs, Disappearing Jobs, and Growing Jobs
Kicker: SOCIETY
Lost Jobs, Disappearing Jobs, and Growing Jobs
by Nam-HoYun, Eugene Ha, Reporter
One of the goals in most people’s lives is to have a decent job and get a high salary. College students usually spend most of their times studying and, participating in club activities to make “specs” to get a job they want. Jobs are surely a part of our lives, but some jobs are gone and never will come back. What caused them to disappear? What kinds of jobs are disappearing? What can we learn from the past?
Jobs that are forgotten
You may have never heard about knocker-ups, but their job was simple. They woke the workers up in the morning just in time so that they can prepare to go to work. Some just knocked the doors, and others used pea-shooters or sticks. You could see knocker-ups until the 1940s and 1950 in Britain and Ireland. Unfortunately, as alarm clocks were getting more affordable and the spread of electricity sped up, knocker-ups had to find other jobs.
▲ Knocker-ups
Switchboard operators are also one of the jobs that cannot bring home the bacon. They were popular from 1880s to 1960s. Back in the days, switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate panel. Sometimes, they also had to respond to the questions regarding their company, which is similar to today’s customer service representatives. As the technology evolved, not requiring human interaction between calls, switchboard operators can only be found in history books.
▲ Switchboard operators
The 4th Industrial Revolution and COVID-19
Jobs that we see today might not be the same tomorrow, or next year. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics, the number of locomotive firers, respiratory therapy technicians, and even accountants are decreasing. Jobs that are vulnerable to new technology or automation are mostly in danger.
▲ Jobs that are about to disappear
At the same time, data analysts and scientists, AI and machine learning specialists are on the rise. We are living in the era of The Fourth Industrial Revolution. It means that the boundaries between the physical world and the digital world are getting blurry. Now we can order foods, buy clothes, pay rent, and chat with others with the tip of your finger on your smartphone screen. As the process gets simpler and faster, the total number of jobs will eventually decrease. In other words, because of the internet (mostly because of AI and robots), the speed of jobs growing or declining is faster than ever. Thus, the global pandemic is pushing this shift to the limit.
Nowadays, we see more kiosks than employees everywhere. For example, fast food store employees and warehouse workers will continue to decrease due to the influence of robots and kiosks. Like the aforementioned knocker ups and switchboard operators, they can disappear into the past. Now, we are currently living in the COVID-19 era, with social distancing, non-face-to-face classes and non-face-to-face meetings being the trend. In the meantime, digitalization and mechanization are developing rapidly, and we can predict many jobs that will disappear in the future.
Jobs that will disappear
McKinsey, a global consulting firm, published a report titled "The future of work after and-19" that introduces future jobs. This job future report, which narrows down more than 800 jobs to 10, provides predictions about jobs that will disappear.
▲Predictions about jobs that will disappear
- Retailers, banks, post office workers: frontline employees interacting with customers on site
- Leisure, travel, hotels, restaurants, airports, entertainment: in the long run, labor demand is likely to slow down due to the transition to remote work and the accompanying decline in business trips.
- Office staff: all administrative staff working face-to-face in the office will disappear (hospitals, courts, factories, etc.).
- Production and maintenance work: factories, farms, residential/commercial sectors, etc.
In the post-COVID-19 era, three trends will accelerate. Telecommuting, e-commerce, automation and AI. Telecommuting is perhaps the biggest and most obvious of the effects of COVID-19. It was analyzed that more than 2,000 of the 800 occupations would continue to work from home.
▲Online meeting
E-commerce has also grown 2 to 5 times more than before the pandemic. E-commerce, delivery and social media jobs increased by 5.1 million. Virtual tasks such as telemedicine, online banking, and streaming entertainment services are also emerging.
▲E-commerce
Finally, automation and the introduction of AI in areas of high proximity will accelerate. McKinsey surveyed more than 800 CEOs and said two-thirds of them planned to increase investment in automation, robots and AI. In fact, many companies have deployed automation and AI in warehouses, grocery stores, and call center manufacturing plants to reduce on-site density and address the surge in demand.
▲ Introduction of AI from Hyundai
Historically, jobs have changed as new technologies have emerged, problems have improved, convenience has been pursued, and human quality of life has improved. If there is a job that disappears, there is another job that occurs. Especially in the 21st century, there is a tendency to shorten the lifespan of jobs and shorten the period of change. Accordingly, experts say that securing human-like creativity, which is difficult for artificial intelligence such as design thinking to imitate, is a way to survive in the future job market. Also, as this change is accelerating due to COVID-19, there will be more jobs that will disappear from our lives today. We need to slowly prepare to adapt to job changes with the new world.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35840393
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchboard_operator
https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/04/30/the-u-s-jobs-disappearing-the-fastest-infographic/?sh=46d3130f1b86
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19
https://www.facebook.com/McKinseyGlobalInstitute/photos/a.10150308137096428/10157584087671428/?type=3
