Advancement of technology and automation puts a threat on jobs of people. And same is now happening with advancement of deep learning and machine learning. In coming years’ noise and protest is going to get intense due to increased automation and robotics into various industries and sectors.
But historically technology has created far more jobs than it ate.
1) Were there any jobs related to programming before 60 years? Today computer software industry employ more than 10 million people around the world.
2) The Mobile communication industry employ almost same number of people and far more in scattered unorganized sectors of repairs, spares and accessories.
3) The clothing industry is being considered giving more than 100 million jobs globally
4) Advancement in construction technology has bought employment for more than 600 million people globally.
And cases go on. But still almost since the beginning of industrial revolution in 19th century, we have been seeing protest against the technology and automation. And there is no sign of it ending anyhow.
Job Creation due to Technology
Advancement of technology reduces prices of goods and eventually will increase the demand, hence production and hence jobs. Technology supports job creation as well. Like technology advancement in lights has brighten this world at much cheaper cost which has helped increasing jobs and productivity.
Job Loss or Skill Shift?
Humans and animals keep getting and losing their jobs quite frequently. Starting from the 19th Century this world has seen many revolts and violence on the matter of job loss due to technology advancement. Bullocks and horses lost their jobs of ploughing the farm since introduction of tractors.
Excuse-me! who made the tractors in factories? As per the data the Technology into agriculture has created far more jobs in machines, food processing and marketing of farm produce compared to the number of farmers who lost their jobs.
So evidently when technology destroys a job it creates new job somewhere else with requirement of different skill set.
Wealth creates even more jobs
As per the data published in Guardian, there were less than 45,000 hairdressers in USA in 1911. After 100 years, there were almost 1,90,000 hairdressers. how come this growth happen? For many people technology, has created more wealth and saved time to be spent behind personal grooming.
And likewise, the additional wealth and time have created millions of jobs in the domains of travel, food, grooming, fashion, retail and entertainment sectors.
So, shouldn’t we afraid of Automation?
Not required to be afraid of but yes, we need to be advanced in our thoughts as well or else we may really loose our jobs.
Two things we can do to live in a better future with technology helping us doing so.
Keep updating our educational institutes to prepare people for future skills to take up the newly coming jobs.
We need a breed of people who keep researching on various opportunities of creating more jobs. We call them entrepreneurs.