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posted by martyb on Thursday November 30 2017, @03:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the become-a-plumber dept.

Automation could wipe out 375-800 million jobs globally in the next 13 years, including 16-54 million in the U.S. But don't worry, there's a new job waiting for you:

The McKinsey Global Institute cautions that as many as 375 million workers will need to switch occupational categories by 2030 due to automation.

[...] "The model where people go to school for the first 20 years of life and work for the next 40 or 50 years is broken," Susan Lund, a partner for the McKinsey Global Institute and co-author of the report, told CNN Tech. "We're going to have to think about learning and training throughout the course of your career."

[...] "The dire predictions that robots are taking our jobs are overblown," Lund said. "Yes, work will be automated, [but] there will be enough jobs for everyone in most areas." The authors don't expect automation will displace jobs involving managing people, social interactions or applying expertise. Gardeners, plumbers, child and elder-care workers are among those facing less risk from automation.

Also at Bloomberg.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:50PM (7 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:50PM (#603507) Journal

    I didn't say that robot plumbers were viable. My point is that great social interaction isn't needed. The customer just wants the stuff fixed.

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday November 30 2017, @05:18PM (4 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 30 2017, @05:18PM (#603523) Journal

    I agree that very little interaction is needed for this transaction.

    Think in the long term. Humanoid robots, sufficiently developed, could step into just about any role that humans currently occupy. Today's humanoid robots are absolutely amazing to anyone in the 80's. Tomorrow's humanoids will be just as amazing to us. We already are at the dawn of self driving cars. How long until self driving plumber robots?

    Plumbers might be unnecessary without humans. A lot of parasite jobs such as politician, lawyer, banker, CEO, manager etc could be unnecessary without humans. Those jobs don't help keep the datacenters running. Other jobs like metal miners, metal foundries, silicon chip fabs, etc are necessary. A realization might occur that humans are a huge burden upon society. The only jobs that need to exist are to service the machines. And robots will have all those jobs.

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    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:13PM (1 child)

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:13PM (#603553) Journal

      I might have seen that movie plot a few times. Two easy ones. Terminator and The Matrix. Anyone else?

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      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday November 30 2017, @07:39PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 30 2017, @07:39PM (#603606) Journal

        Long before we actually went to the moon, there were movies about it. Movies with plots are not necessarily wrong. There are other sci fi things that became reality. Terminator, Matrix or the VIKI of the 2004 movie I Robot are not necessarily wrong just be we don't like the outcome. Not to mention many books with themes of AI challenges humanity.

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    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Grishnakh on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:57PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:57PM (#603584)

      I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

    • (Score: 2) by Adamsjas on Thursday November 30 2017, @07:18PM

      by Adamsjas (4507) on Thursday November 30 2017, @07:18PM (#603595)

      >>> Humanoid robots, sufficiently developed,

      Your friend Arthur would tend to agree: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

      But we will always be chasing "sufficiently". You can't just assume that into existence.

      Long after we develop something that can crawl down a pipe inside a wall, and patch a leak that the human couldn't even reach without tearing out the wall, we will still find it insufficient.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:37PM (1 child)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:37PM (#603572) Homepage Journal

    You guys are thinking nothing but repair jobs. And only the very simple ones at that. Quite a good bit of a plumber's work is social. On new homes, remodels, additions, and the like you have to be ready to find out precisely what the customer wants, explain why they can't or shouldn't have it, give them the benefit of your experience in suggesting what's pretty close but would work much better, explaining costs, dealing with their spouse who wants something entirely different or will not take "it's both physically impossible and illegal to do it that way" as an answer, and a gerzillion other little things. Passable people skills are absolutely required if repeat business is something you're going for.

    My favorite social bit was explaining that their maybe five year old kid had tried to flush someone's rubber cock down the toilet. How I managed that with a straight face I have no idea.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @10:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @10:14PM (#603682)

      There's a large (single-owner, it seems) plumbing operation in SoCal.
      Their trucks (full-on rolling advertisements) are fully outfitted and ready to do most jobs.
      He calls his operation The Smell Good Plumber. [google.com]

      He doesn't seem to have a problem keeping all of his trucks manned.
      In his commercials, he mentions his competition, Bubba (the buttcrack plumber who shows up with a pocket donut and can't give you an estimate).
      "No Bubbas here".

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