How does Technology Impact Jobs? - Vedik Upadhyay (Guest-writer)

Historically, technological advancement has shown to improve the lives of certain groups of people, while worsening conditions for others. I'll let Vedik explain how this applies to current society and the future...

When I was in elementary school, my teachers would always tell the class, "did you guys know that 80% (I think it was 80, but the point is, a majority) of you will have jobs that don't even exist right now?" They said that this was because technology would create many more jobs for people in the future. At first, the idea intrigued me--even though I was young--but it became increasingly redundant to the point of cliché. Anytime something tech-related came up in the classroom, I told myself, "here it comes." But how sound is this overused statistic?

As you grow older, you get to know and see more of how technology impacts the world. Then you realize the issue of job creation from technology is more complicated. An example of this is outsourcing. Outsourcing can provide jobs to people outside the United States, especially in the IT department. Outsourcing can create global competition, and people inside the United States might not get as many jobs as people from other countries. Technology also changes the types of jobs. It doesn't just replace jobs and spew them out somewhere else. Technology creates jobs that require an education, a degree, certifications, experience, or at the very least, prerequisites like being able to code. Many people don't have the facilities to learn tech-related things or the money for a proper education with a degree. This makes it almost impossible for them to get a tech-related job, especially when there's so much competition, domestically and globally.

Another challenge to this idea of job creation is automation. While tech may create jobs, it may also destroy many jobs. As technology improves, many jobs that don't require much skill and are mostly repetitive can be automated with machines, like factory jobs. But the more technology improves, the more skilled work it can do.

One great example of this is self-driving cars. Autonomous vehicles are much more advanced than you think and are ready to be implemented in the real world. Waymo LLC is a tech company that works on autonomous cars, and they have a working taxi service in Phoenix, AZ. Waymo's taxi service, which has no human drivers, has driven millions of miles in total and has only had a few accidents. But here's the catch--every accident involves a human at fault. All the recorded accidents involved a human who made the error leading to the accident, so the computer was never the problem. Not only is Waymo's autonomous car-driving service successful, but it's also actually better than humans. Based on the data collected, self-driving cars are more reliable than humans. Humans are easily distracted, can't drive for long periods of time without feeling fatigued, and the technology inside a car can do so much more than the human body. Not to mention that emotions can take over in life or death scenarios. Automated vehicles don't experience emotions. Autonomous vehicles have much better cameras and a 360 external view that extends up to several feet--which humans can't see from inside the car with passengers, seats, and all kinds of things blocking the view. There are no blind spots for a vehicle with cameras everywhere. Technology won't be distracted by notifications or calls. The success of Waymo's taxi service has implications for making taxi drivers obsolete. Not only will this take the taxi drivers' jobs, but also the people working for services like Uber and Lyft.

But while autonomous driving may take away jobs from Uber, Lyft, and your typical New York yellow-car taxi drivers, it also creates jobs in companies like Waymo. But here comes the first problem--anyone can be a taxi driver, but not anyone can work for Waymo. All you need in order to be a taxi driver is: 1. knowing how to drive and 2. a car. However, someone working for Waymo might need to know programming or data science. Essentially, a shift to autonomous driving could be taking jobs from those who need them and giving them to those who can find them in several other tech companies.

So what is the truth? According to the World Economic Forum, by 2025, technology will create 12 million more jobs than it will replace. But it does come with several catches. It changes what's needed for a job. Getting a job won't be as easy anymore. If all the simple tasks are automated, all the jobs that aren't will require some education or knowledge, which isn't available to everyone and takes time and effort. You might not be able to work at a gas station, as a janitor, or as a taxi driver to earn some extra money for the year. Another potential consequence of technology is that physical labor jobs are replaceable, creating more sitting desk jobs, which might lead to health issues. So the answer is yes, technology will create many jobs in the end, but tech will also change the world drastically in so many ways with the types of jobs it creates and replaces.