$15/hr minimum wage won’t fix this.
Quite recently, there have been debates about stagnant wages, “livable” wages, eat-the-rich & the like. These debates are distracting from a looming employment crisis in which many aren’t focused nor are prepared to handle. It’s coming and it doesn’t matter whether the minimum wage is raised or not. Many of the jobs that the “Fight For $15” crowd are campaigning for will be gone by 2025…and a few high income jobs too. Bottom line; If you’re low-skilled or in a job that is seeing a rise in the use of Artificial Intelligence, you will be fucked by 2025. But this scenario isn’t all gloom in doom. There are several paths to livable wage jobs & NOW is time for people to get the skills to get on those paths. Paths they should have been on decades ago, but I digress. Let me break this down for you.
According to a survey in the Future Jobs Report of 2020 (https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020), 50% of employers said they would speed up deployment of automation in their business. 80% of employers said they would speed of the digitization of their business processes. This is likely to lead to a scenario of dual disruption. Meaning that a number of the jobs that we’ve lost won’t be coming back at all. The jobs that do come back will be considerably different from what they once were & require different skill sets. Again, this is based off information from the Future Jobs Report published by the World Economic Forum. It’s a reliable resource that lays out where the job market is headed. I wish many pundits & politicians would read it before they jump on their soap boxes.
The Future Jobs Report predicts that machines will spend the same amount of hours in the work force as humans by 2025. Which is likely to lead up to almost 85 million jobs being displaced by automation. Most of these jobs will be manual labor or jobs that focus on repetitive tasks. A sampling of jobs set for a huge decrease in labor are low-skill manufacturing (not high skill manufacturing), shipping centers, drivers, accountants, auditors, payroll clerks, operations managers, business service managers, administrative secretaries. If you’re in one of these fields it is imperative that you retrain yourself before this becomes a crisis. Keep in mind, over 60% of companies that say that plan to transition to more automation and digitization also have programs to help employees retrain their core skill sets.
Not all hope is lost. There are several industries with people shortages right now & are set to see a huge growth in jobs over the next few years. This list is a sampling not a whole. Keep in mind that these jobs all share some of the same underlying skill requirements.
Shared skill requirements for future jobs:
• Critical Thinking
• Creative Problem Solving
• Analytic Reasoning
• Social Intelligence
• Tech Skill (coding, scripting, etc)Critical Thinking is the ability to objectively analyze information like data, facts, research, and observation and make a reasoned judgment. Creative Problem Solving is the ability to come up with innovative and/or out-of-the-box solutions to problems. Analytic Reasoning is the ability to observe qualitative or quantitative information & discern patterns in the information. Social Intelligence is an important soft skill of having self- and social-awareness, an evolved social attitude, & an appreciable capacity & willingness to manage complex social exchange. Technical Skill is hard skill expertise from applying previous skills either digital or physical tasks. Tasks like coding, system upgrade & repair, & process development.
Here are some (well paying) industries that are poised to see an increase in job demand. Internet of Things Specialist (really big in the smart home space), software developers, cyber-security professionals, business process development professionals, process automation (continuous integration) professionals. Many of these jobs don’t (or no longer) require a college degree for one get their foot in the door if their skill set is certified. Udemy (https://www.udemy.com/) & Udacity (https://www.udacity.com/) are good sites that provide a training over several industries and provides verification of completion. Do not delay getting on the path to 21st Century skills & get retraining. Your livelihoods depend on it.