How Will We Deal With Workplace Automation? – The Good Men Project (blog)

Driverless semi trucks are expected to hit the road in full force as soon as 2020. While this will make the industry more efficient, the question over what happens to 3.5 million truck driving jobs remains.

We hear about the potential impacts of work place automation when it comes to trucking, manufacturing, retail and more. Right now there are 1.64 robots to every 100 employees in the U.S. and that number will likely only climb over time. Korea has 4.78 robots per 100 workers, Japan has 3.14 per 100 workers, and Germany has 2.92 per 100.

As the number of robots per worker grows, the cost of implementation for robots in the workplace will shrink. Eventually, it will become cheaper for technology to do the work that humans are currently doing.

Some of the top industries potentially impacted include:

Insurance underwriter

Farm laborer

Construction laborer

Fast food

Trucking

Mail curriers

A global average of 57 percent of jobs will be at risk to work place automation as the future grows. Its scary stuff. So the question becomes, how do we prepare for a future where jobs arent necessarily threatened by immigration, but by technological progression?

The struggle will likely be felt by millions of Americans. Strong political leadership can help smooth out the transition. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently spoke in front of the governors association, with the suggestion of legislating the upcoming artificial intelligence boom.

Its hard to look at a possible bright side when the scope of the jobs created by the automation process isnt immediately clear. There are entire industries now that revolve around technology that wasnt here 20 years ago (cell phones for example), and that trend will likely become more explosive. There will be new careers and new fields permeating the workforce as we enter into an even higher-tech world. Someone will need to make and maintain the technology used.

This list of the 21 hottest jobs of the future still holds several staples such as nurses and elementary school teachers, but it also includes software systems developers, research analysts, computer and information system managers, computer system analysts, software application developers and more. These are the fields that may be most spared by automation and also the jobs that will likely have a hand in shaping the future of the country and the world.

The people in industries most heavily impacted by automation will no doubt struggle. The more you understand about the potential risks you face now, the better. It will be a tough reality for people with 20-30 years experience in these industries.

If we do enter into a situation with millions out of work, how do we prop the economy back up? Thats where universal basic income comes into play. There are a lot of questions surrounding this debate that will need to be answered.

Will a universal basic income work?

Do we have the political will? Right now it seems the government is more interested in tackling an immigration problem.

How much would be given?

How much would it cost and who would pay for it?

What kind of exclusions would we make?

Could this lead to an explosion of creativity and entrepreneurship? Or would it kill productivity?

Can governments continue to afford this on a long term basis?

Avoiding the risk

The main factor for whether your job is at risk for automation is how routine your job is. Everyone in the American workforce will need to look at how vulnerable there industry and specific job is to automation. They might need to be looking at the emerging alternatives as well to determine how to create the most viable future for themselves.

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Photo credit: Getty Images

Matt Brennan is a marketing copywriter, occasional parenting writer, and journalist in the Chicago area. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.

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How Will We Deal With Workplace Automation? - The Good Men Project (blog)