The Effects of Technology on Future Job Landscape

Megan Chang
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The Effects of Technology on Future Job Landscape

Automation is nothing new. The United States has experienced multiple waves of

automation thus far. The first Industrial Revolution occurred in the mid-17th and early 18th

centuries in England and resulted in the emergence of water, steam, and coal as abundant

sources of power, helping the U.K. dominate the global textile market during this era (Kelly).

The second Industrial Revolution in the United States didnt occur until after the Civil War.

Advent of tools reduced the burdens of manual labor. Eli Whitneys cotton gin and the use of

interchangeable parts made manufacturing more productive and efficient. Furthermore, advances

in electricity led to crucial inventions such as the telegraph, telephone, and radio (Kelly). We are

in the midst of yet another technological revolution with the onset of artificial intelligence,

increased storage and computing capacities, and automation. The effects of technology are

already clearly visible in our daily lives. Renting a movie or binging a TV show is as easy as

logging onto your preferred subscription service and tapping a few buttons. Newspapers and

magazines are struggling to maintain relevant as the advent of social media has made news

accessible in the form of a short tweet or Instagram post. But as much as technology has made

our lives more comfortable, does its increasing power and influence pose a threat to the jobs of

millions of hardworking individuals?

It is true that technology will change the job landscape. It will decrease the demand for

lower-skilled jobs, but it is unlikely to automate whole occupations or entire industries.

Furthermore, the advent of new technologies will create new demand for so called differently-

skilled jobs as productivity increases. It is important, however, to be aware of how this change

in the job field will affect overall patterns of life. Most likely, it will result in a greater emphasis
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on education and may increase our standard of living, but it also has the potential to increase the

gap between the rich and poor.

It is generally agreed upon that automation will reduce the need for certain jobs, resulting

in both costs and benefits to holders of these occupations. However, which exact jobs new

technology will replace is still a point of contention. Increasing technology may remove

employees from jobs called the three Ds by Bob Doyle of the Association for Advancing

Automation (Heater). This saying refers to jobs that are dull, dirty, or dangerous. This viewpoint

supports the onset of technological advances because of the belief that these advances will

remove people from undesirable jobs. However, other economists, such as David Autor of MIT,

have a different view of the situation. Autor argues that instead of removing employees from

unwanted jobs, technology will deprive certain individuals of their sole source of income and

livelihood. He believes that technology will have a greater effect on jobs of the middle class,

such as bookkeeping, clerical work, and repetitive production jobs in manufacturingall of

which typically provided middle-class pay (Rotman). On the other hand, higher paying jobs

and, somewhat surprisingly, lower skilled jobs that cannot be replicated by machines have

increased in demand for human labor. But, the proliferation of machinery does not mean that

entire occupations will be completely automated. This statement is supported by a Boston

University study in 2015 by James E. Bessen. The paper argues that in the past, certain

occupations, such as telegraph operators or boardinghouse keepers, declined in demand due to a

variety of factors (Heater). In other words, automation was not the sole culprit of the decline of

these jobs. In fact, there has only been one case where the disappearance of an entire occupation

was largely caused by automation. This is the job of an elevator operator (Heater). Therefore, as
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history has showed us, by and large the advent of automation does not mean the apocalyptic end

of entire careers.

However, just as technology will be replacing some jobs, it will also most likely result in

the creation of new ones. In fact, while the onset of machinery may reduce the need for certain

jobs, it is also true that in other fields, they provide an opportunity for augmentation of job roles.

This is the idea that humans and machines can collaborate in order to expand into new, uncharted

territory. There is a belief that machines will not be able to completely take over jobs that require

a unique human touch or human characteristics such as flexibility, creativity, or judgement. It is

in these specific fields that Autor believes that tasks that cannot be substituted by

computerization are generally complemented by it (Davenport and Kirby). Pamela Rutledge,

director of the Media Psychology Research Center, shares a similar sentiment. She believes that

there will be many things that machines cant do, such as services requiring thinking, creativity,

synthesizing, problem-solving, and innovating...Advances in AI and robotics allow people to

cognitively offload repetitive tasks and invest their attention and energy in things where humans

can make a difference (Smith and Anderson). The future of machinery and humans is

collaborative, not combative. Instead of fearing computerization and technology, we must learn

to embrace them and utilize them to their full capacities.

Furthermore, the advent of technology may result in exciting new career fields that could

not have possibly been imagined 15 years ago. Virtual reality engineers, user interface designers,

and data engineers are all newly formed careers that work closely with technology. Additionally,

a common sentiment shared by many economists is that throughout history, every major wave of

technological advancement has not depressed employment in the long run. Past revolutions in

agriculture and industry have undoubtedly shaped careers in these fields, but have also lead to
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the creation of new jobs to replace the old. History tends to repeat itself. Will our current

situation be any different? IBM executive Guruduth Banavar believes that computerization will

lead to a new category of differently skilled jobs. (Heater). He describes it as a bell curve. He

states that if the high-end of expertise is on the right side and the low-end is on the left, theres a

whole lot of medium-level expertise in the middle. Thats going to shift to the right (Heater).

These jobs, however, will most likely require higher levels of education. Autor believes

that the labor market for college-educated workers is very, very strong (Heater). STEM will

continue to gain importance in the coming years, placing pressure on schools to focus more on

these areas in order to better equip their students for the real world. In fact, although economists

may disagree on the exact future of jobs in a technological world, a point of general agreement is

that the best-educated humans will have a better chance in the coming years. Unfortunately,

many experts, including Bryan Alexander of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal

Education, believe that our current education system is not well positioned to transform itself to

help shape graduates who can race against the machines. Not in time, and not at scale.

Autodidacts will do well, as they have done, but the broad masses of people are being prepared

for the wrong economy (Smith and Anderson). Therefore, even if better machinery and

computerization does lead to new job roles and increased augmentation, it is crucial for humans

to be properly equipped to take on these new roles. This means that there will need to be major

reform in school systems in order to match education standards with the current job climate.

Undoubtedly, increased computerization and digitalization will lead to polarization

within the United States. With middle class workers losing their jobs and more educated

individuals gaining new ones, uneducated workers are placed at a severe disadvantage. This may

increase the income gap between the rich and poor. Unfortunately, its a cycle that is hard to
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escape. Unemployed workers will have a harder time gaining the education needed to give them

secure jobs in a changing field. Technology is making it harder to break from this chain of

poverty.

It is absolutely essential to understand not only the inner workings of technology, but also

its possible effects on our jobs and society as a whole in order to be successful in coming years.

While there may not yet be reason to fear machines taking over man, it is still true that our

digitalized world will result in a very different career landscape. Machines have the potential to

remove humans from low-skilled jobs while simultaneously providing new jobs and

opportunities for man-and-machine collaboration. In order to remain competitive in the coming

years, education will prove to be essential. This emphasis on higher education, however, does

have the potential to lead to increased polarization.

Regardless, there is truly no way to be able to predict the future with complete accuracy.

Human ingenuity and resilience have the potential to shape our job world in a way far more

powerful than any machine or technological advancement. In any case, it is crucial that in the

coming years we use all of our resources to make major strides in our world, whether it is

technologically, economically, or socially.

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Works Cited

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