Technology is changing jobs at an ever-increasing pace — think grocery u-scans, robotic manufacturing, cashier-less stores — and the effect on the adult
workforce is a coming storm. SREB’s new report
Unprepared and Unaware shows how technological advances will affect our region and how to meet those changes head on.
The report points out that while automation will take over many of the tasks people perform today, technology typically creates more jobs than it eliminates. Most of the new ones, called
middle-skill jobs, require more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree. The correct question to ask is not “Will there be enough jobs?” but “Will there be enough people with the skills to fill the new jobs?”
The data support this shift. During the recent recession, jobs available to those with a high school diploma decreased by 4.8 million, while jobs available to those with a bachelor’s degree
increased by 400,000. And in the six years since the recession, jobs for adults with bachelor’s degrees increased by 4 million, while those with a high school diploma or less made only marginal gains.
Since researchers estimate that between 23 and 44 percent of all current work activities will be automated by 2030, people will be losing jobs in their mid-thirties, forties, or fifties — when they should be saving for retirement and working to launch their own children.
This compounds the problem, because parents’ and children’s educational level are related. Children without middle-skilled parents will lack the support to develop their own skills.
This is not a passing storm. Technology will keep advancing, and states that aren't looking ahead to address attainment levels will soon see two generations left behind.
Read the report >
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