How will AI affect the kind of jobs that young people today are preparing for?

The fear of certain jobs being susceptible to automation seems to be growing amongst young people today.

Although this fear could have lingered way back in time, these concerns properly began in the 1970’s where many individuals feared that automation could replace factory workers. After the Second World War, industries in the USA, Europe, and Japan began adopting automated machinery to improve efficiency. What seemed to come out of nowhere, machines began doing tasks that previously required manual labor, such as machining and packaging. Many citizens began to notice how fewer workers were needed in the production line, which led to a fear of mass layoffs among individuals who worked in manual labour. Many wondered how sustainable their job was and acknowledged the preference in businesses choosing robots and machines that rarely made mistakes over humans. I encourage you to put yourself in the shoes of a labour worker back then, where out of nowhere, machines were replacing jobs of people you knew, making you fear for the safety of yours. By the late 1970s, computers were becoming more mainstream, which led to people who worked in accounting and bookkeeping fearing for the safety of their positions.

In this case, all the fear that people in these industries were experiencing turned out to be somewhat true,

Clerical and bookkeeping roles have declined significantly.

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks: employment dropped steadily since the early 2000s. More than 50% just in the last 20 years (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Warehouse and inventory management clerks declined as inventory management software.

Employment in machining has declined in advanced economies such as the U.S, Europe, and Japan

It is also portrayed that many of these jobs that have been talked about are still continuing to decline in personnel, where,

Word processors and typists are expected to lose 38% of their workforce by 2033

Data entry keyers are expected to lose 25% of their workforce by 2033

Surprisingly, jobs such as cooks and cashiers are projected to lose 10-14% of their workforce by 2033

Even computer programmes that have a median salary of 98,670$ are expected to lose up to 10% of their entire workforce. (“Occupations with the Largest Job Declines : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”)

How could this be that, despite all these losses of jobs, the US total employment is still expected to increase from 167.8 million in 2023 to 174.6 million in 2033, an increase of 6.7 million jobs or 4.0% over the decade. (Colato,Javier;Ice,Lindsey;Laycock,Sofia)

This question cannot be answered simply, as there is a substantial number of factors that go into such a broad question. However, to put it simply, economies such as the US are constantly evolving and adapting. For example, when automation reduced jobs in manufacturing and clerical work back in the 1980s, the U.S. economy shifted toward services, especially healthcare, which might have narrowed down the workforce in one sector but expanded its workforce in other sectors. Unfortunately, the economy doesn't correct itself in a second, but this process of transformation of jobs idolized by young people today might take years and years, leading to certain generations being stuck in vanishing lines of work.

In conclusion, to answer my question best of my ability, automation certainly will reduce employment in some occupations, however this will lead to new jobs being created in either emerging sectors or even in some cases sectors that didnt exist before, ones that perhaps we cant even think of right now but will become common jobs in the future.

Works Cited

Colato,Javier;Ice,Lindsey;Laycock,Sofia. “Industry and Occupational Employment Projections Overview and Highlights, 2023–33.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7 Nov. 2024,www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2024/article/industry-and-occupational-employment-projections-overview-and-highlights-2023-33.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com.

“Occupations with the Largest Job Declines : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Www.bls.gov, www.bls.gov/emp/tables/occupations-largest-job-declines.htm.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Bls.gov, 6 Sept. 2018,www.bls.gov/ooh/Office-and-Administrative-Support/Bookkeeping-accounting-and-auditing-clerks.htm.