The Changing Landscape of Employment

March 23, 2018 at 6:45 pm | Posted in uncategorized | Leave a comment

Periodically, I write about trends in work and the economy. For example, The New Unemployed or Changing Jobs.

Fully half of all current jobs are expected to be automated or replaced by new technology within the next decade. I recently posted a related article about changes to energy and transportation.

In a TED talk by economist Daniel Susskind, he explores misconceptions and consequences of automation. How do we distribute wealth other than through work?
(For some reason the talk video is not posted on YouTube and the TED code doesn’t work now.)

In this TED talk, Anthony Goldbloom explores which jobs we’ll lose and which not. Machine learning makes the difference – is the task novel or is it about frequent, high-volume tasks a machine can learn? Already, computers can diagnose disease and mark exams better than humans. They’re learning to drive cars and anticipate our desires too.

On YouTube

I’d recommend people get much better guidance on their skills and aptitudes. Often, these are not obvious without considerable experimentation. We can be blind to what comes naturally to us. Yet working at what we’re naturally good at can make a huge difference in quality of life and benefit to society.

We would all benefit immensely if talented creatives, philosophers, healers and spiritual adepts didn’t have to seek other paid work to support themselves.
How all this will play out remains to be seen.
David