The impact of the employment revolution cannot be understated. It is happening faster than previous revolutions with the advent of modern technology. Ironically businesses in the Silicon Valley, which is the home of the largest high tech corporations, are funding research exploring the potential consequences to society, if technology takes over most occupations.
Research Projects:
One research project being funded is a base salary for everyone. They are conducting a pilot program in a city in America where 100 people get a minimum wage of $1,000 to $2,000 per month. There are no strings attached.
The study states it “will test payment methods and data collection, as well as whether the money meets people’s core needs, and how it affects people’s happiness, well-being, financial health, as well as how people spend their time.”
What other Countries are doing:
Businesses in Silicon Valley are not the only group considering the impact on society if people do not have enough work. Progressive countries like Finland are introducing a universal basic income. This gives every citizen a basic obligation-free living wage to meet their living costs.
Finland is not alone in considering this option. Switzerland unsuccessfully put this option to a referendum, while in the Netherlands, the city of Utrecht is considering the idea.
Responsibility of Government and Organisations
It is encouraging that some organisations and governments are exploring what options may be available in the advent that technology does take over many occupations. Obviously having a basic income is only alternative.
They are realising it is no longer good enough to presume that, like the past, enough new jobs will evolve as old industries die and new ones emerge. The differentiators are the speed at which technology is replacing or restructuring jobs and the global competition for them.
LifeLong Employment has disappeared
In one generation the concept of lifelong employment has disappeared. Replaced in part by flexible and unsecured work conditions. Currently in Australia two thirds of all new jobs are part time, twenty percent are casual and ten percent are contractors. Eighty thousand jobs have already been replaced offshore.
As technology becomes cheaper and machines more sophisticated workers will continue to be replaced irrespective of occupation. In Australia alone it is anticipated that five million workers will be replaced by computers in the next decade. This is forty percent of all jobs.
The Silicon Valley corporations are aware that many of the new industries being created are employing less people than ever before, which is perhaps another reason for the research. For example, in 1979 General Motors employed 840,000 people and made 11 billion dollars, and Google generated a profit of 14 billion dollars in 2012 with 38,000 people. Recently Facebook paid 19 billion dollars for WhatsApp which employed just 55 people.
More governments, organisations and individuals need to consider the impact of the employment revolution. The Pollyanna approach which believes good things will always happen and life has a way of working out is not the approach. Neither is doomsday useful. Too much is at stake to bury our heads in the sand.
The two Groups being affected the most
The two groups that are being affected the most by the employment revolution are those with the least power. They are the millennials under 25 and people over 50 who have prematurely lost employment predominately through redundancies.
Many millennials are struggling to find sufficient or relevant employment. Education no longer guarantees them a job nor does the profession they entered. Technology is replacing some aspects of existing professions in some cases before students have finished their degrees. Consider for example, the impact for graduating young lawyers where technology is rapidly reducing the need for them.
Both university graduates and experienced people over 50 find themselves competing for low skilled and low paid jobs. One in five Australians now find themselves unemployed or underemployed. It is just the facts.
It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure their own financial viability if at all possible. Individuals more than ever need to consider what jobs may survive the rise of technology and those that won’t. Very easy to articulate, however, the employment revolution has hit with such speed many people are being caught unawares.
To make informed decisions, education about the facts and implications of the employment revolution is critical for individuals, businesses and nations. Those who are informed and ahead of the curve will be the beneficiaries.
Consider for example, if by 2025 the anticipated 540 million global cloud workers become a reality, and many of those are individual contractors; what impact will this structural change have on current Australian employee wages and entitlements, to name just one consideration?
What can Leaders do?
Australian leaders in business and government may benefit from the forward thinking of those in Silicon Valley. If a potential scenario is that there may not be enough jobs to ensure the financial viability of many of the masses, what alternatives are available to alter or maximise the outcome?
It is not to say it will happen, but we can’t assume it won’t happen.
