A national government retraining scheme was proposed in July last year to help those workers whose jobs will become obsolete because of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation.
Whether it will materialise following the Brexit mayhem and subsequent election remains to be seen.
Research by Oxford Economics has found that 1.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost to robots worldwide since 2000, including 400,000 in Europe, 260,000 in the US, and 550,000 in China and that a further 20 million manufacturing jobs will be obsolete by 2030 although most of these will be abroad.
There is no doubt that the future world of work, especially, but not only, in the manufacturing sector will look very different.
The drive towards aver more automation may conflict with concerns for the future of the planet and the environment but both will doubtless mean a radical rethink of economies, especially those that are dependent on consumer activity.
Demographics too will play their part as many of the populations of the developed world age and live longer and birth rates decline.
All this has led to an apocalyptic vision of the future by some, such as Aaron Benanav, a researcher in the social sciences at the University of Chicago, who argues that economies have, since the 1970s, been based largely on industrial production, expansion and exporting as their major economic growth engine and that such opportunities for growth are dwindling as more economies mature.
He argues that no other sector than manufacturing has been identified that can replace this out of date growth engine and that “restoring previously prevailing rates of economic growth will prove difficult if not impossible. Unless we find some way to share the work that remains, beggar-thy-neighbour politics really will tear our societies apart”.
Others, however, are more optimistic arguing that we have not even begun to imagine the jobs of the future.
Business Insider is one publication that has had a stab at imagining the jobs that will be needed in the future. Their list includes GPs, Dentists, Plumbers pipefitters & steamfitters, vocational nurses, construction managers, physician assistants, sales reps, secondary school teachers, tractor-trailer truck drivers, computer systems analysts, construction trades supervisors, service sales reps, software developers, and physical therapists to name just a few.
But these are all existing jobs in the world as it currently is. A global digital company, Cognizant, has gone even further and imagined jobs of the future that may be needed. A small sample from their suggestions includes:
Ethical Sourcing Officers for when corporations want to root their decisions on what is ethical and not what is profitable. The ESO will be in charge of production to ensure that every step of the process is in accordance with the ethical values of the shareholders.
Personal Data Brokers, who will make sure their customers are paid by those companies who use their data. This assumes that consumers will have full control over their personal data
Virtual Store Sherpas, will be the online equivalent of the in-store personal shopper, who will guide consumers through the process of selecting the most appropriate and affordable items and organise delivery.
Man-Machine Teaming Managers, whose job will be to “figure out and combine the strengths of man (cognition, judgment, empathy, versatility, etc.) and machine (accuracy, endurance, computation, speed, etc.) to create the most productive worker team possible”.
A brave new world or an apocalypse? Who knows? But there is no doubt that the future is out there!
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