A thought provoking commentary on page A19 of the February 17, 2011, edition of The Wall Street Journal, “Is Your Job an Endangered Species?” by Andy Kessler reminded me of my early days at IBM. As systems engineers, we were the change makers converting many manual tasks to punch card machines. Now some 50 years later, many technological labor replacing innovations are in use, and we are wondering where the jobs have gone.
As an individual interested in technology, I marveled at the contest between the IBM computer named Watson (I assume after Thomas Watson, IBM’s founder) and two of the show’s highest money winners on the TV program “Jeopardy!” I can only guess what the future of the use of natural language machines and how such machines or systems will impact jobs.
The article lists tellers, phone operators, stock brokers, stock traders, and librarians as jobs that have been eliminated. In the Dallas area we can include toll takers and change makers. The question is asked: “What jobs will be destroyed next?” and suggests that there two types of workers: creators and servers. Creators are the ones that drive creativity - write code, design chips, create drugs, and run search engines. Servers service the creators by building homes, providing food, offering advice, and working for governments.
After categorizing types of servers, the article concludes with a position note: “Fortunately, history shows that labor-saving machines haven’t decreased overall employment even when they have made jobs obsolete. Ultimately the new jobs always overwhelm the drag from jobs destroyed – if policy makers let it happen.”
The unknown is where will these new jobs come from and what will they require of us. I think that education in technology and human relations will be important components needed to meet these new job requirements.
Please share with job seekers your thinking about jobs of the future and competing with other Watson computers to come.
Thanks! Glyn
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