As the world changes
Today, technologies change everything but the most dramatic change is happening in the manufacturing sector where over half of the works are being automated or replaced by robots. Automation processes have pushed labor workers out of the manufacturing sector and the number of employment in manufacturing has declined significantly in the past ten years and expected to continue in the next five years. Although many manufacturing jobs are being outsourced to lower cost countries but it is only a temporary solution while the factories are being updated with newer automation equipments. Once these updated completed, manufacturing jobs will return to the host countries and lower cost countries whose economy is depending on cheap manufacturing works will experience large number of unemployed labor workers without jobs and without future.
Automation technologies also increases productivity because these machines work 24 hours nonstop as compare with labor workers who cannot work more than 8 or 10 hours a day. The fact is since automation was used, U.S. GDP has increased from $2.6 trillion to $15.5 trillion, which means that manufacturing output has increased seven times but with fewer people than before so profits of those companies have increase significantly. If we look at the number of labor workers in manufacturing, we can see a drop from 16 million in 1989 to 9.4 million in 2013. At the same time, the number of skilled workers was increasing fast to the highest level. It is expected that in the next ten years, manufacturers will spend more on automation machinery and hire skilled workers to run it, most of them will have at least a four years of college education.
Although developing countries have taken over much of the low-skilled manufacturing production but changes are taking place there too. For example, the largest low cost manufacture of electronic equipments in China, Foxconn who have several hundred thousands of labor workers to build iPhones, iPads, TV, VCR, mobile devices etc. are beginning to automate its factories with robots and other special automation equipments. Sooner or later, many labor workers will be replaced by these robots and automation machines. An economist warned: “We are experiencing the second wave of the Information age. Just like over hundred years ago at the time of the industrial age, there was a period of uncomfortable change where agriculture sector suffered as more people left the farm and went to work in the factories. Most farmers at that time were illiterate, but to work in factory, they need certain knowledge and a high school education was the key to get good job so many went back to school. Today, the same thing is happening when manufacturing sector are suffering as there are fewer jobs available and to work in technology industry, a college education is the key to get good job so many are going back to school. If you do not go to school and get into the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), you may not have a bright future.”
Currently some people are ignoring this warning as they have not seen automation machineries or robots to challenge them or threaten to replace what they do yet. The simple reason is they do not understand globalization where national boundaries are disappearing and competition is getting fierce among nations. A Business Analyst wrote: “Some developing countries have not seen the impact yet; they are still in the “Denial” phase as they do not think it could happen to them. If they look into the fast foods industry, wherever McDonald, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks come, local owned restaurants, and coffee shops are disappearing fast and it is only the beginning. Many things will change when mass production products come in with higher quality and lower prices then they will see how many local companies can survive. Since the world has become “flat” in the past decade because of information technology, most labor workers are suffering because they cannot compete with robots. Even with very low salary, the robots always win because they work 24 hours a day non- stop but never ask for a raise. Robots deliver higher productivity, better quality and do not protest or go on strike which is preferred by most companies over labor workers.
As the world changes, labor workers are not the ones who suffer but some college graduates will suffer too. In the old days, getting a degree from a university is good enough to get a job. Today you need to have knowledge and skills because no company will hire you just because you have a degree. No one will hire you for what you know BUT hire you for what you can do for them. That means what you can do must be in alignment with what the company needs. Therefore, in this competitive world, you must have a broad knowledge of the job market's demand, understand industry trends, monitor changes and if needed, adjust your skills accordingly. In other word, you must develop a lifelong learning attitude because in this interconnected world, you are competing with people from all over the world for a few job opening positions. Of course, not everyone can change that quickly so there will be many who do not make it or fall into a hole created by the accelerated technological change and they will be abandoned.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
