Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

More and more jobs are on the way to irrelevance

Stefano Virgilli
Stefano Virgilli
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By Stefano Virgilli — Singapore Airlines woke up to a shocking 138 million Singapore dollars (SGD) quarterly loss, the first one in 5 years.


As a result, the management called a press conference during which announced a restructuring of the organisation.


Singapore Airlines Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong blamed the tough competition as the main cause for the loss, but also some factors related to how the company is currently structured.


The interview reopened the debate about job relevance.


A few years ago a recruiter from Ashley Ellis declared that, especially in IT, gaps between skills and IT market demands simply meant that current technology’s evolution has left job seekers behind.


A typical example is how IT application security has made some hardware security irrelevant.


In other industries gaps are equally evident.


Forbes publishes a list of 20 jobs with spiralling downward projection by 2020.


The main distinction is that some of them are decreasing because they are becoming irrelevant while others are decreasing simply because fewer people is willing to embrace such profession as a career.


For example, farmers are going to decrease by 8 per cent during this decade in the US, reaching a bottom figure of approximately 1.1 million, down from 1.2 million.


Such change is imputable to the desire of farmer parents to direct their children to a “white collar” career.


In fact, the projection for Agricultural workers is not as dramatic, from 750 thousand down to 730 thousand, a decrement of 2.6 per cent. It clearly spells that the market still demands for such profiles, and the manpower is supplied by foreigners.


So, as long as people from poorer countries are willing to operate in such a tough job, the industry is willing to hire.


On the other hand, jobs such as switchboard operator and postal service mail sorter are decreasing in this decade by a quarter or more due to their irrelevance.


Technology has in fact developed alternative options to consumers.


An example is how McDonald’s has integrated self-service ordering touch screens in their outlet when the


counter workforce asked for a salary increment.


The corporate world knows how to be merciless, but market requirements and technology progress can be even more heartless.


Another reason for jobs to become irrelevant is the ability to outsource jobs to cheaper countries.


Pretty much any job in the textile industry has shifted towards the east part of the world.


Some gigantic industrial estates in southern China are now producing the majority of the global market of bags.


Meaning that if you own a bag, most likely it has been produced in a single region of a single country.


The same goes for computers, where 90 per cent of every computer in the world is produced in China.


Lastly there are those jobs that are disappearing simply because the market can do without.


For instance in the press industry, besides the tremendous blow that digital publishing has inflicted to traditional printing, the remaining employed workforce has become irrelevant because of the way the global audience purchase.


It is not a mystery that price and logistic have defined a crucial shift in the market’s preferences over quality.


If until 10 years ago we all purchased items based on their quality as an attribute of durability, today we purchase inexpensive goods with the understanding of their shorter lifespan.


This global mindset shift has affected all industry and virtually all products.


In the printing industry, in simple terms, nobody cares anymore about the print quality.


In fact, jobs like Prepress Technician are reaching the bottom count of 40 thousand in the United States of America, an economic giant of over 300 million people.


In my experience as graphic designer, my initial point in career, I have seen many jobs getting to the bottom in terms of pay and appreciation.


For instance, a Photoshop operator in Europe in the early years of 2000 could earn up to 120 euro per hour.


Now, in emerging countries such as Indonesia, some really talented graphic designers can request no more than 2 euro per hour.


In the 3D industry it went down similarly. From huge one-off payment for a 3D model, down to $9.90 to purchase online.


The same destiny happened to some software developers.


I recall paying 10 thousand Singapore Dollars a month for an iPhone developer in Singapore back in 2010, while now applications can be developed for cheap in emerging countries.


The world economy is constantly changing and those unable to keep up with the newest trend and technology can be left behind.


— vs.voxlab.net@gmail.com


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