With the recent recession and economic downturn, there has been much discussion over how to improve the job market and get people back on their feet. This article highlights a few of the issues that are projected to arise within the new year.
As the article mentions, the rapidly growing impact of technology will definitely have an impact on the workplace. From the distractions of smartphones to the need for training to work with new devices, technology does pose a bit of a challenge for workers in the years to come. On the other hand, the rise of technology and the “independent worker” has also made it easier for “people to find projects and projects to find people.” As a result, people can work from home while spreading their work globally.
Also mentioned in the article is the overall unemployment rate, at 8.6%, while the correlations of levels of education vary drastically. So, with the apparent rise in college educated youth and the maturing generation that has grown up with technology, will the future job market improve based on those factors alone? What else will we need to take into account?
4 comments:
The technological advancements that have occurred over the past few years have certainly improved our way of life or at least have created an enhanced sense of efficiency. However, I think that this tide in technology has the potential to disadvantage those of lower socioeconomic status or those with less ample educational resources. As the article states, "more technology necessitates more training" and "the pace at which new technology emerges and becomes paramount is quickening as never before." Because technology essentially takes away the need for human input and replaces it with "robots," the labor market will become more and more divided. My prediction is this division will lead to a reasonable stopping point in the "Age of Technology" that lies in our near future. Then again, the future is quite unpredictable; who knows, perhaps this wave of technology has the true potential to overturn our traditional way of life and completely open up the global sense of communication and collaboration.
This article does pose a problem in the near future that America should be concerned about. Those who have lower incomes and aren't able to be exposed to the new technology that is advancing year after year are at a disadvantage. This is because now those who are less fortunate are subject to jobs that are laborious and don't pay as much as if they had gotten a degree. As a result, that poses the question of does everyone have an equal opportunity to get an education? Yes, there are plenty of financial aid opportunities out there, but with a continuously growing need, how much money can the U.S. keep giving?
One could also think though that there will always be the unwanted jobs that are open to those who need them, but why should that be the only option there is?
Because college is not the right path for everyone and because laborers are becoming more and more obsolete, perhaps the government should begin investing in public programs that teach workers how to operate new technology as it comes out. That way structural unemployment would decrease because there would be more people with basic skills in technology in the workforce.
This may sound silly, but growing education might actually harm the world economically. Like Rebecca stated, as technological advancement increases, the more "robots" we create. These so called robots will take over human jobs and cause a great deal of unemployment. Even a simple task like a sending a mail can cause unemployment to rise. The use of emails and text messaging can stop people from sending out paper mails. This will cause mail mans to lose their job. It would be an awful thing to happen but it's a possibility. I'm not necessarily saying that technology wouldn't ruin the future, but technological advancements also has its downside. We'll just wait and see what happens to employment as the years go by.
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