The Great Resignation led businesses everywhere to face dire labor shortages, from retail to the supply chain and logistics industries enabling them. The figures are bleak, with 40% of workers in 31 global markets quitting in record numbers. Despite over 75 million Americans being hired in 2021, nearly 70 million still quit. (Deloitte, 2022) This then begs the question: is the job loss that the University of Oxford in 2013 finally coming true? Perhaps not.
Americans quit their jobs due to low pay, the lack of opportunities for advancement, and feeling disrespected (Parker & Juliana Menasce Horowitz, 2022). Whereas the University of Oxford, in their study, The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation? predicted the job loss will be due to computerization and automation. (Frey & Osborne, 2013). Records so far show that workers are leaving on their own accord, not forced out because of robots, machine learning, and automation.
But we cannot deny that automation is here to stay. So, in the face of these developments, does the original prediction still hold? Are our jobs really under threat from automation?
The Oxford study has been challenged, critiqued, and scrutinized for possible gaps many times over. In 2018, its authors themselves even said this study only tackles one aspect of work and cannot determine how many jobs will be automated or if other factors will come into play. While automation is indeed taking over certain human tasks, the World Economic Forum says how people handle the change will determine its impact. That task now is not to protect occupations that computers can do better, but to train the workforce for future work. (Advaithi, 2022) As such, people must be trained to succeed in this new environment. READ MORE...
