Technology in its broadest sense, along with discovery, are the drivers of new work and jobs. Each new discovery, every new software tool or programming language, every new product creates new jobs and requires new skills. As people began to unearth bones as they plowed fields in England, the science of paleontology emerged. As computers grew, so did the number and type of computer languages and the programmers and analysts that make them useful.
Each recession gives rise to hundreds of new careers and entirely new job functions as old ones are made obsolete. Car assembly people, for example, are a dying breed and not many will survive this recession. Other jobs that are at the end of their life cycle include machine operators of all types, administrative and clerical workers, low-end programmers and code debuggers, sales clerks, and any work that one can envision being done, at some point, by a robot or computerized machine.
But the 21st century will bring hundreds of new jobs to replace those that are lost. Many of these jobs will require advanced education or more training than is typically required today, but nonetheless attainable by most.
Already I can envision the time when we will need experts in installing and improving artificial organs, in implementing green energy strategies, in mining the Moon and Mars, and in navigating and understanding deep space. We will also need people who are more skilled at virtual relationship building and in working across cultures. Psychology and sociology are clearly going to be adapting and changing to a global, intercultural world. In the shorter term – say over the next 3-5 years, many jobs are already being identified by the Department of Labor in the United States and by other groups.
U.S. News & World Report each year publishes a list of those jobs they see as “ahead of the curve,” but these are mostly jobs that are already here and growing. This past December, for example, a couple of their emerging jobs were data miner and health care informatics specialists. Other jobs are being enhanced or enlarged as a result of the slow economy. These include car mechanics whose utility has suddenly increased as people keep their cars longer.
But I am more focused on the jobs that will emerge in five or more years. Here at the Future of Talent Institute we are embarking on a new and ambitious project to identify some of the jobs, and the skills and competencies they will require, that are less obvious but that will be important to the economy over the next decade. Based on some of the trends we see as major, such as sustainability, the increase in women in the workforce, the new values of Gen Y, and intercultural mixing; we expect to identify a number of careers, jobs or specialties that will fuel growth and employ many over the next 10-15 years.
If you would like to participate in this research in any way, I’d love to hear from you. If you have ideas about this or see emerging trends, careers or occupations also let us know. We’ll give you full credit for your insight.
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