Technological Changes and Effects on Employment Report (Assessment)

Introduction

In the wake of the unprecedented technological advancements in the contemporary workplace environment, I think concerns have emerged over the future of sustainability within the workforce. Additionally, the technological changes imply alterations in the manner in which business organisations adapt to the changes by adopting new technologies. Statistics show that technology generated an employment growth of 23% between 1992 and 2014 thereby implying that despite replacing the human resources, the changes create new opportunities for employment (Acs & Mueller 2015).

Therefore, if I currently hold a particular college education qualification, I should be worried about the possibility of securing an employment opportunity in the next two decades. I think that having a college education would still assure a well-paying job in the next 20 years especially in business, economics, caring, technology, and creative sectors. Therefore, these areas are my future career options and I will explain how technology will affect the same.

Technological changes will only affect particular types of professions

Over the years, I think the incorporation of robotics and automated intelligence (AI) in various industries has affected the employment trends besides how the individual players carry out their business processes. A study carried out using a sample population of 1896 business and economics experts say 52% of them affirm that technological developments would take up most of the jobs executed by individuals especially in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors (Acs & Mueller 2015). The researchers concluded that graduates in the business and economics, caring, technology, and creative sectors expected a substantial growth of employment opportunities.

Particularly, careers in areas such as accounting, management, marketing, and fine arts could attract new job opportunities. Therefore, I hold that the improvements in these sectors would require a workforce to manage the steady growth of the said areas as the future societies seek to adapt to the changes in the corporate world. In this case, figures show that between 1992 and 2014, the agricultural, energy, footwear, and leather works industries have experienced a considerable decline in employment of opportunities standing at -50% and -82% respectively (David, Dorn & Hanson 2015). In this concern, technological changes primarily affect negatively routine jobs especially the manual and cognitive ones.

Over the same period, sectors including financial management, information technology, consultancy, and nursing reported a noteworthy growth of employment opportunities that reached 132%, 195%, 365%, and 909% correspondingly (David, Dorn & Hanson 2015). In this light, I believe that improvements in technology would favour the growth of opportunities about cognitive yet non-routine works. I think that making work easier besides bolstering productivity and cost efficiency has been the agenda for the introduction of robotics and AIs in the corporate world, thus leading to the development of new coping strategies in a manner that creates more employment opportunities (Bogliacino, Lucchese & Pianta 2013). Therefore, in the future, I have career options in the business and economic fields in the next 20 years.

Sectors Promoting Technological Innovation Demand Increased Labour

Axiomatically, the development and operationalisation of technological innovations in the contemporary and future corporate worlds would require an adequate workforce to keep up with the trends (Galí 2013). Notably, over the past 35 years, technology has resulted in indirect implications for employment creation. Reports show that in the UK, technological improvements account for 20% of the rapidly growing occupations as represented in the growth of the technology sector workforce over the past few decades.

Statistics indicate that information technology managers in the UK have experienced an increase in numbers denoted by a factor of 6.5 implying a workforce of over 327,000 professionals as software developers and programmers experienced growth by a factor of three making a workforce of 273,160 experts (Ríos-Rull et al. 2012). Therefore, I have future career options in software development and IT management shortly since the two areas facilitate the creation and management of new advancements.

However, Ríos-Rull et al. (2012) advise that the current populations have to take note of the dynamic changes characterised by technological advancements as depicted by the point where some advances become obsolete and require improvements. For instance, I perceive the changes experienced in the telegraph and the telephone operations in the front office or customer care aspect of business operations in the last three decades demonstrate that technology undergoes constant developments as specialists and experts endeavour to invent technologies in the workplace setting.

For this reason, I believe the onset of mobile telephony, the Internet, and automated switchboards has revolutionised how businesses handle customer relations. As such, the continued efforts of information technology experts including programmers and software developers lead to the creation of more jobs for customer relations officers as corporations integrate technology with the customer relations personnel to bolster efficient delivery of services (Vivarelli 2013).

Technology will affect my career options in different ways. For instance, I think the incorporation of web analytics and social media monitoring to boost sales and marketing processes will revolutionise how marketers execute their duties, especially when analysing customer behaviour over the online platforms to make sound decisions. Therefore, I still hold that having a college education in marketing would improve my chances of securing a job in the field.

Technological advancements lessen expenditure thereby creating demand and employment

I know that technological developments in the corporate world enhance how firms reduce their operating costs as AIs and robotics foster the realisation of cost-efficient processes. Technology allows players in different industries to engage in operations that are less capital intensive, thus providing goods and services at lower prices to the customers in a way that creates more demand, thus resulting in the creation of more jobs, directly and indirectly. For instance, in the face of the declining popularity of traditional pubs, contemporary bars have employed more managers and customer service personnel as statistics show that between 1951 and 2011, the industry experienced a four-fold growth of the workforce.

Therefore, technology will affect the way good and services are delivered to consumers. This aspect will demand that I gain extra knowledge on different technological operations to fit into the system. For instance, in accounting, I know that highly sophisticated systems will emerge given that technological revolution keeps on changing. Therefore, I will be required to become a lifelong student as a way of keeping abreast with the new developments to remain relevant and valuable in the market.

Digitalisation Creates Substantial Market Value than Before

Undoubtedly, technology has led to the decline of several traditional business activities (Algieri, Aquino, & Succurro 2013). Contemporarily, businesses have incorporated the use of digital processes that seek to improve the productivity aspect of operations. As such, the incorporation of technology in business processes undermines traditional practices in a way that promotes downward trends in employment (Grimpe & Hussinger 2013). Surprisingly, the new technologies introduced in a particular sector could dramatically lead to an increase in market value, hence massive employment opportunities (Sepehrdoust & Khodaee 2013).

For example, Kodak, which was once a leading player in the photography industry, employed thousands of employees to facilitate the production of requisite chemicals and paper before the onset of digital cameras. Similarly, Instagram and Facebook have considerably altered the photography industry as sharing of images through the platforms have undermined the growth of firms like Kodak. The two players employ few professionals, and this aspect has led to the addition of substantial value in the market besides facilitating the creation of at least seven billionaires (Dachs & Peters 2014). Therefore, I believe that such players will create more opportunities for employment as the use the social media platforms to highlight products, as part of their marketing strategies would increase in the future. In this light, I will be required to stay updated on the new technological developments to remain relevant in my field of operation.

Conclusion

My future career options include consultancy, financial management, and information technology among others. I believe that technological advancement in modern society could still make available employment opportunities amid the instances of labour replacement that it cultivates. Notably, technology promotes the development of the workforce pertinent to areas like management and consultancy. Industries that support technology development would also encourage employment creation. Moreover, digitalisation enhances the creation of employment due to the available opportunities globally, and thus undergoing college education guarantees me an employment opportunity in the next two decades.

Reference List

Acs, Z & Mueller, P 2015, ‘Employment effects of business dynamics: Mice, Gazelles and Elephants’, Small Business Economics, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 85-100.

Algieri, B, Aquino, A & Succurro, M 2013, ‘Technology transfer offices and academic spin-off creation: the case of Italy’, The Journal of Technology Transfer, vol.38, no.4, pp.382-400.

Bogliacino, F, Lucchese, M & Pianta, M 2013, ‘Job creation in business services: Innovation, demand, and polarisation’, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, vol. 25, no. 1, pp.95-109.

Dachs, B & Peters, B 2014, ‘Innovation, employment growth, and foreign ownership of firms: A European perspective’, Research Policy, vol.43, no.1, pp. 214-232.

David, H, Dorn, D & Hanson, G 2015, ‘Untangling trade and technology: Evidence from local labour markets’, The Economic Journal, vol.125, no.584, pp. 621-646.

Galí, J 2013, ‘Notes for a new guide to Keynes (I): wages, aggregate demand, and employment’, Journal of the European Economic Association, vol.11, no.5, pp. 973-1003.

Grimpe, C & Hussinger, K 2013, ‘Formal and informal knowledge and technology transfer from academia to industry: Complementarity effects and innovation performance’, Industry and Innovation, vol. 20, no. 8, pp.683-700.

Ríos-Rull, J, Schorfheide, F, Fuentes-Albero, C, Kryshko, M & Santaeulàlia-Llopis, R 2012, ‘Methods versus substance: Measuring the effects of technology shocks’, Journal of Monetary Economics, vol. 59, no.8, pp. 826-846.

Sepehrdoust, H & Khodaee, H 2013, ‘The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Employment of Selected OIC Countries’, African Journal of Business Management, vol. 7, no. 39, pp.4149 -54.

Vivarelli, M 2013, ‘Technology, employment and skills: an interpretative framework’, Eurasian Business Review, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 66-89.