What do you predict the future of work will be? Will the increased

1. 86

   gmwilliamsposted 10 years ago

   
   computerization & automation displace the lower echelon, low skilled workforce?  Will even the lowest level jobs require at least a post-secondary technical skill or a bachelor's degree?  Will jobs such as secretary, clerk, and service jobs become extinct?  Will the paradigm of work evolve more into a pleasurable passion of expression than a tolerable drudgery?  Will retirement also became passe as more older people elect to continue to work rather than retire?  What is your synopsis on the evolution and future of work as we know it?

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      Credence2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, indeed computerization and automation is already replacing the old style workforce. The tsunami of 2008 was more than a financial crisis but a moment when these forces were well in place making this downturn unlike previous ones.
      
      Voice recognition software, crude and clunky just a decade ago, is now going to replace receptionists and such on the telephone. Companies will engage a customer with a live person only for more complex inquiries.
      
      I envision trade schools that will train students how to fix the machines, robotics and such. Our current K-12 need to include this kind of training option. Trade schools have a stigma relative to the college education in America, but I suspect that will need to change. Germany is an example of a more developed trade school program for its students.
      
      there are certain jobs that require a human presence janitors and such, but the value of these menial labor workers are declining. So if you are not highly trained in the new trades, or selected a good major, you are in trouble. The days of union labor getting paid handsomely for connecting a widget to a thingamajig is over. Such was the fate of workers in the auto industry.
      
      Look out for the Jetson's or "Total Recall", virtual bosses 24/7 that record how long you take a potty break as part of the new 21st century sweatshop and chips from the company providing virtual vacations implants for the brain. Of course, you report to work the next day refreshed. When you call in sick the computer using voice harmonics will calculate the probability that you are lying. But that is still down the road a few more years.

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2. 69

   psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

   I think the requirement for more education pretty much tracks the attainment of education by more people--to a net zero or near zero overall effect.

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