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A Yang Prophecy on Jobs

More jobs going away in the future.

Today there is an urban and rural myth that the disappearance of jobs in the United States has happened for two reasons:

  1. Free trade agreements, which sent jobs out of the United States
  2. Immigrants have taken the jobs away from citizens of the USA
In reality, it is automation that has killed the number of manufacturing jobs that are available today. 

Then I heard a quick quote from Andrew Yang who is currently running for the Democratic presidential nomination. It went something like this, "What happened to the manufacturing sector in the United States is about to happen to the retail and fast-food industries in the near future." 

Instead of calling it automation, this time it is robotics and artificial intelligence. Whole classes of workers are going to be unemployable because they have no advanced skill set. It will take more than a high school degree or GED to have successful lifetime employment. 

We are on the cusp of this dramatic change taking place. Today, truck drivers are needed and there is a significant shortage. In a few short years, long-haul truckers will be a thing of the past. If there is anyone in the cab, it will be someone monitoring the systems that are operating the truck.

Stand by for technical advances coming soon to a workplace near you. I'm sure there is a robot that can "drop fries."

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.