Not too long ago, just a few decades or so ago, the belief was to get a good education, so that you could go work for the great big corporation, remain, be stationed at a cubicle until retirement. That was known as a career.
But then, modern day technology arrived. It promised to make our lives easier, retire sooner, buy that boat and cottage and enjoy a life of leisure. But stop, not so fast.
The current reality, this current economy that we live in, is that we’re witnessing more and more workers resigned to extensive periods of temporary work, or prolonged unemployment. This thanks primarily to all of this new technology and automation.
In almost any city throughout North America, the unemployment data is escalating and becoming staggering. The individuals who are now entering the workforce and being able to hold down any type of work, long term, is around 65% percent.
This is the lowest point since the early 1950s, as well as the lowest level of unemployment rate among workers, especially for young men, since the Great Depression.
Where Oh Where Have All The Jobs Gone
Those jobs, those middle income mid-education jobs are now just disappearing for a wide variety of occupations. For instance, the once stable University educated based positions, such as, loan officers or financial consultants has dropped off by 40% percent in less than a decade.
This outpaces the 30% percent drop in the total jobs available across the board for this particular or similar professions, this according to accurate employment metrics.
When it comes to the investment and banking industry, the financial analysts are now being replaced by analytic systems, along with floor traders using trading algorithms, all automated.
Other traditional positions such as portfolio or mutual fund managers are now competing against exchange traded funds, or ETFs, the majority which are also completely automated.
The Reach That Is Economic Restructuring
Even the following professions aren’t spared when it comes to the impact of gross economic restructuring.
The number of hours and time which are logged by first year associates in the legal profession, which is a productivity measurement of young aspiring lawyers, fell by close to 19% percent in the largest of Law firms.
Those graduates who are trained to be Architects, an once noble and evergreen profession, who are aged between 25 to 30 years old, felt the biggest blunt of unemployment when all of the various degree programs were surveyed.
So also spare not, the once cocksure medical profession. These rates are continuing to fall as well, this according to various sources. Volumes are definitely on a downward trend and continuing to fall.
So what will eventually result is a surplus of cardiac surgeons, for instance. What the employment experts are requesting is that the faculties just slow down the training in this area. The reason being that they’re not expected to be in demand, and won’t have that much work.
Say Hello To The Jobless Future
Experts are predicting, warning, and their argument stands that we’re now entering the jobless economy, the jobless future is here, and will continue to remain.
So as a result, most people, those particularly entering the workforce for the first time, are now already combining part-time, freelancing based work just to get by.
It’s been estimated in the past 10 years that over 30% percent of the entire workforce has participated in what’s now known as the “freelance economy,” and this type of entrepreneurial activity has reached it’s peak in the past few years.
The “Baby Boomers” Are Now Almost Extinct
These workers, who were once referred to as the Baby Boomers, are the ones who once carved out and defined a career, their career, as working in the same job, their chosen level of work for their entire lives, until retirement.
But with the sudden influx and speed of the technological change among us, and the very real prospect of the predicted “poor” employment related economic issues, this pattern is no longer considered realistic any longer.
It’s now understood that the once traditional skills that were derived by post secondary education, the traditional longstanding ones, the positions which required specific training, the knowledge and the skills acquired from college, may longer have a long shelf life.
So What’s The Future Of Working
What then will be the future of working for a living, what will the once traditional careers look like. Know that the reality which is life in general, and working in particular, are actually getting longer and not shorter as once predicted.
No one can now rely on the corporation, the institution, or any other organization, even the governments, to provide anyone with secure work for the traditional thirty to forty years that they once did.
In the future, in the very near future, it’s predicted that it won’t be that uncommon for people to need to work well into their retirement years, such as their 70’s. That sitting back, relaxing into retirement is now expected to be a distant fantasy.
Gone Are The Days Of Traditional Work
Blame this on the strict changes of organizational structural which has altered the entire nature of jobs and careers. Organizations have now become completely vacant with fewer management levels.
Work has now shifted towards knowledge based work, project work, freelancing, outsourcing past borders. Unilateral teamwork has completely changed the nature and landscape of all jobs.
Careers which were at one time viewed as progressive, the put your head down and work hard, provide sweat equity, and then work yourself up the corporate ladder now lead towards a false hope.
These changes are the result of the development of advanced technology and a quick multitasking career. This is where the career path is defined by the workers individual hard and the soft skills which they possess, and it’s no longer based on their formal education or work experience.