With the announcement of another 5000 Qantas jobs to go, the unemployment line in Australia is looking long, even if the stats are holding up. And more importantly, it is looking longer in some industries than others. It got me to thinking “what will the world look like for the next generation? Where will they find jobs?” Which leads to the thoughts about what types of roles and skills we should be encouraging those who want to have jobs then, to learn now. In fact, when you think about it, the current changing work market has me really wondering where we should direct our kids and grandkids to find good “careers”. I am quite lost as to what jobs will survive the globalisation trends of taking jobs overseas.
Young or old, it is clear the workplace is changing as the world takes a bite out of “expensive Australia”. And with it, we lose jobs jobs and more jobs. I am not sure that we will even recognise the roles that twenty-somethings are doing in 20 years time our country will have been forced to change, along with the world.
Looking at current world trends I am not sure that we’ll need our house in Australia our accountants, airline pilots and maintenance personnel. And we wont need administrative staff, factory workers or real estate agents in our workforce because electronic processes look like they’ll knock out the need. We won’t need checkout chicks or stockbrokers or many other workplace roles we find support our economy so much.
We know, as of this week that in Australia, airline pilots and hostesses will be increasingly laid off it seems as airlines struggle with the cost imbalances of the travel industry. Those that do work, will increasingly come from overseas bases when the labour costs are lower no doubt.
Manufacturing, and the unskilled labour that supports it is clearly also going to be out of a job in Autralia. We simply don’t seem to be able to manufacture much here anymore.
Clever bookkeeping systems and automation of tax returns is reducing reliance on accountants at the personal level. Can the quantum of accountants survive the change?
The move to run lean companies is reducing the demand for administrative staff, with many senior business leaders choosing to make their own appointments and book their own flights.
And engineering, the career of the last decade seems to be waning in demand significantly in Australia, again as overseas workers become faster and more efficient in a global world.
The days of fat government, for now seem to be coming to an end, so there’ll be no cushy Government jobs to keep everyone busy either.
It seems the only jobs we’ll have left in our country could be construction workers, entertainment workers and health & care workers…
Health seems to be an industry we can’t internationalise… needing more and more hospital workers, like doctors and nurses and aged carers. We’ll need teachers and child care staff too to build our nation of the future. Although maybe this role will be marginalised to technology also.
Construction workers should be kept busy, if we can keep our country earning money, as everyone here seems to love a new house or a new apartment. The rate of population growth will no doubt be larger than we expect… I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t. Although we may modularise it, which could mean it can be manufactured offshore also and shipped to Australia.
And we all love to eat out… Everywhere I go there are restaurants in the cities packed to the brim with diners. The internet is entertaining people too… so that could be a safe bet.
So, which jobs do you think will survive the shift, and what would you tell your Grandchildren to study as a career if you were to suggest something future-proof?
