The job market is changing rapidly, bringing both apprehensions and hopes. Here’s how technology will change jobs in the future and what you can do about it.

In the early 19th century, a group of protesters emerged in England, calling themselves Luddites. It was the early days of the Industrial Revolution, and textile machinery was just beginning to gain traction. As a result, the factories that employed these machines had higher output and less demand for human capital.

Workshop owners who did not or could not access these machines were facing acute losses. They could not match prices with the factories and find operational jobs either. So these people became the angry Luddites, turning into arsonists and destroying technology they saw as their enemies.

The Luddites failed and so have all similar anti-tech movements. Before getting into technology and the job market, it is important to understand why technology is an unstoppable force and why humans have a complicated relationship with it.

Why Has Technology Always Been the Future?

At present, we tend to look at technology from a post-internet perspective. However, technology has always been the driving force of society, even before the invention of electricity. The fact that humans discovered fire and created tools are the earliest signs of technology at work!

At its core, technology has a straightforward definition: Something that reduces human effort. The technologies we see transforming the job market serve that very purpose. These technologies are making things more manageable in terms of productivity and output.

While not aggressive like the Luddites, people still harbour many feelings about it. For instance, there is a growing fear that technology will take away all jobs in the future.

According to a 2020 World Economic Forum report, about 85 million jobs will be lost to technology by 2025. But is the plot as simple as said? A more nuanced understanding will reveal both sides of the coin.

Technology and Jobs of the Future

In 2022, we have jobs like social media managers, influencers, independent podcasters, etc. A few decades ago, these jobs did not exist.

If the speed of technological innovation is anything to go by, the number of new jobs we will have in the future will be much higher. The Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) claims an addition of 3 million job openings by 2023. When we expand the horizon by ten or twenty more years, we can expect ten million+ new jobs, some of which may not exist today!

The same ISF report also claims that most of these new jobs would be in technology, information technology field, to be more precise. When we take a deeper look at the scenario, it is predictable and expected.

According to Nirupama VG, managing director of Ad Astra, a Bangalore-based consultancy: The trend towards automation is here to stay and “will increase irrespective of the industry.”

“Tools equipped with artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, and blockchains will have a predominant role to play where the functions are more process-oriented,” she says.

“If the speed of technological innovation is anything to go by, the number of new jobs we will have in the future will be much higher. The Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) claims an addition of 3 million job openings by 2023. When we expand the horizon by ten or twenty more years, we can expect ten million+ new jobs, some of which may not exist today!”

How Is Information Technology Creating More Jobs?

Let’s take an example.

A few years ago, if you had a complaint, you had to convey the same to a customer support executive via call or email. First, you would be put on hold. Then you would be connected to an executive whom you did not select. It can lead to miscommunication, confusion, anger, and so on.

With the genesis of conversational chatbots, customer support executives were no longer on the front line. Instead, people started to converse with bots and soon became familiar with the process. Most people had no problem with this transition.

As you can see from the above example, technology makes things easier in output. As a result, customers get quick answers with AI chatbots, and businesses save time and money on manual efforts.

The same example illustrates why some people fear technology taking over jobs. As the importance of customer support to executives decreases, so would their need. So, naturally, many jobs would be lost.

On the other end of the spectrum, you need a programmer, a marketing team, a conversational UX writer, graphic designers, and logo makers to create a chatbot. Moreover, humans are still required to handle complicated handover cases that chatbots cannot comprehend.

So you see, by taking away one position, chatbots have created four or five more. So overall, it’s a win-win situation for both employees and employers.

Office Spaces Are Becoming Redundant

Any print media house, for example, needed a brick-and-mortar office in the past. Today, many companies (media or otherwise) are 100 percent remote. A few software and tools have made this unthinkable possible.

Be it Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, or even WhatsApp—collaborations without physical proximity are a reality now. But these tools did not emerge out of thin air. Instead, companies and people spent years developing these tools that are now transforming the world.

As you should be able to guess by now, the most in-demand skills would include creating and maintaining such tools. If the whole world needs cars, people who can make it would be in the highest demand. Since today’s world needs information, we need more people who can create, share, or work with information.

Takeaway for Jobseekers

If you are looking for a job in 2022, the fundamentals are not much different from looking for a job in the 1980s. What has changed is the necessary and relevant skills.

Traditional textbook-based education is not going to cut it anymore. So, to sum it up in one line, the need of the hour is hands-on training.

Many leading companies no longer ask for college degrees. Instead, they want to know what you can do. And what you can do in 2022 is largely dependent on what tools you can use.

At the creator/developer level, it means being able to create and improve the software. At a user level, it means the ability to use these tools to your advantage.

Social media is a great example. Anyone can use social media platforms as a user, but not everyone can create brand awareness through social media.

The world, and India in particular, has enough people to provide manual labour but not as much requirement. The world needs people who know how to leverage technology to their and others’ advantage.

The Future of Job is Very Exciting

While conversations around the future of entrepreneurship are largely technology-focused, it is not the same for the future of jobs. However, the future of jobs will also be significantly, if not wholly technology-based. Now is the time to prepare for this change and skill yourself accordingly.

If you have a knack for solving problems and creating solutions, the future of the job market will excite you. Today, we have many opportunities and even more avenues to access resources. Anyone willing to capitalise on these demands will have no shortage of options in the future.