Impact Of Technology On Jobs

What is the correlation?

As quoted by renowned Management Guru Peter Drucker:

“Management has to recognize that there is no one technology that pertains to any industry, on the contrary, all technologies are capable of having an impact on any industry.”

Technology is growing by leaps and bounds. Innovation and disruption have become everyday phenomena. Advancements in technology not only help industries to function at a faster pace, but they also help to minimize human effort and increase the efficiency of production. At the same time, technology is also becoming an increasing factor for increasing unemployment. Automation has made its presence felt in every industry across the world. This has not only cut down on the need for human efforts but also reduced the number of job openings in a multitude of fields. Not only has technology brought the world closer, but also, it has increased the distance between unskilled labour and the availability of jobs for them.

Positive effects

Technology is giving birth to a variety of avenues of new scientific discoveries and developments. Some of these are artificial intelligence, 3D printing, self-driven vehicles, and robotics. As a result, technology has started creating employment for skilled professionals. Also, considering automation in agriculture and manufacturing. This has opened opportunities for people who can drive machines and even for companies which work on automation technology. Along with the growth of jobs in the automation sector, dependent industries start growing. For example, with increasing automation in manufacturing, research and development in supply chain and logistics grows. Hence, technology has been a boon considering the number of jobs it continues to create. Given the fact that these developments in technology are endless, employment opportunities too will see an ever-increasing graph, more so in talent-rich countries such as India and China.

Negative effects

The immediate result of technological advancements is observed as losses in employment. This is because, with the growth in technology, more and more manual tasks are replaced by machines. This makes more and more jobs redundant as machines guarantee efficiency as well as are a cost-effective alternative to human employees. This forces people to continuously update themselves and hence leads to survival of the fittest. This can be hard on an unskilled workforce which has no access to skill development training or to education.

Concluding remarks

The intervention of technology in any domain has become absolutely inevitable. The wonders of technology are such that it has not just boosted productivity and efficiency, but also the level of safety which would have been unachievable by humans alone. Faster communication, rapid transactions, global reach are all by-products of growth in technology. We can, therefore, conclude by saying that although technology in terms of automation has reduced jobs for unskilled people, it has outgrown the growth in employment in other areas. This can be dealt with a shift of people from unskilled to specially-skilled employees. This change will further enhance the growth of people, their employability, their pay scales, basic income and purchasing power of people, leading the world to development alone.