Professor Elam

Tuesday Jan 7 2014

Here is a list of 15 disappearing jobs. The thing that jumps out at me from a list like this is that most of these are clerk type jobs which have about a three month learning curve. My students are aare that I emphasize obtainging specific certificaitons in field. More and more this is what is necessary to show that in fact you possess information and skills that make you a good hire. 

I would add auto sales to this list. With more information on the internet I suspect most people in dealerships are merely price shopping, they know what they want. Ditto for retail clerks, most people are show rooming and buying on Amazon. 

While we are at it, how about starting a list of robots that one encounters every day?  As Congress has turned employees into liabilities, the move to replace human beings with machines has intensified. The idea of drone delivery may be a bit far out but not long ago the idea of specialized next day Fed Ex delivery was dismissed as well. 

Eveyr where I look from garage door openers to self serve gas pumps to tablet ordering systems for restaurants, simplistic jobs are being replaced. Plan on attaining a skill set that cannot be replaced by a machine.