There are quite a few jobs that are currently being automated and may be completely eliminated in the near future. Tech reporter Matt McFarland gives a list of jobs that are at a high risk of being eliminated by robots that includes cashiers, toll booth operators, drivers, and fast food workers. He notes that “[j]obs that require only a high school degree are most in danger,” and that jobs that do not require much human analysis “are easier for machines to handle.” These high risk jobs require workers to do mostly routine tasks, which Krakovsky says are easier to automate (22). Routine tasks can be easily “codified in an algorithm” (Krakovsky 22). Autor says jobs that “use well-understood rules and procedures … can increasingly be codified
Some skills are hard for robots to replicate. As robots eliminate jobs that are made up of skills that are easy to automate, humans will be forced to move to jobs that are made up of skills that are harder to automate. Social skills will be in high demand, because they are “extremely complicated for machines to learn” (qtd. in Krakovsky 23). Socially demanding jobs such as managers, teachers, nurses, therapists, doctors, and lawyers have seen rapid growth and rising wages (Krakovsky 23). Krakovsky also writes that “jobs that require high levels of both cognitive and social skills have fared particularly well” (23). In his description of health care workers, McFarland notes, “Computers are increasingly good at making medical diagnoses, but patients don't want to get diagnoses from an impersonal computer.” It seems that humans would rather communicate with other humans than robots, so possessing good social skills could give a person a good boost in the future job market. Other skills and traits involving a “human touch” will also be in high
It is almost certain that job automation will disrupt the economy. Cameron writes, “Everyone agrees that we face disruption ahead, and that it’s prudent to prepare” (90). The question is: how do we prepare? One of the first things that needs to happen is big changes in the education system, like it was discussed in the last paragraph. Beyond the education system, there are many other things that will need to change. People will need to be informed about the changes and risks that will come from robots taking on more and more work. Cameron thinks that politicians need to be doing speeches that warn the public about the “prospect of a coming labor crisis” (91). He writes that we need “an informed public understanding of the issues we are discussing, as the background for a maturing of both personal and political decision-making about the future,” (93). People need to be prepared for all the possible outcomes of job automation, good or bad. Governments and politicians will have to inform the public of the risks, and then government policies will have to change to assist in the transition into the technology-driven