23 Jun 2016

Thomas Frey, author of Communicating with the Future, has predicted that over two billion jobs will disappear by 2030. While this sounds pretty harsh and scary, he insists “this is not a doom and gloom prediction, rather a wake-up call for the world.”

As we make our lives more efficient and (hopefully) transition to renewable energy, many of the world’s current jobs will be going the way of the dinosaurs. But there will be a plethora of new jobs–exciting, futuristic jobs that don’t even exist yet.

While predicting the future is a difficult business and Frey’s premonitions may not be 100% correct, it’s a pretty safe bet to say that jobs are going to change. I’m no clairvoyant, but there are certainly some trends that are unfolding in the job market that are worth noting. If you’re still deciding how you can make working life as fun and rewarding as possible, check out the safest options and see how they fit with your ambitions.

Nursing and healthcare are safe industries

By 2025 nursing will be the top tertiary qualified job in Australia and aged care will be the top vocational job, according to the Federal Government’s Future Focus report. We have both a growing population and an aging population, which means people are living longer, and will need to be looked after into their old age. While many people will eventually lose their jobs to machines, healthcare still requires a human touch–and maybe it always will.

Health care and social assistance are projected to gain up to 798,000 jobs by 2025 according to the Australian government’s Future Focus Report.

Science and technology are good options too

It’s no secret that the tech market is huge–it’s reflected by our fascination with (or addiction to) our phones, tablets and laptops, and the developments in drone and artificial intelligence technology. These industries are on the up and up–from software and app developers to drone operators to sensor designers–so getting qualified in the science and tech industries is a safe career option.

Professional, scientific and technical services are projected to gain up to 583,000 jobs by 2025 according to the Future Focus Report.

Education

It’s a staple profession and probably always will be. Learning and teaching are the pillars of our very existence. Whether we’re learning how to read, how to swim or how to fly an unmanned drone into space, we’ll always have to learn stuff. And we’ll always need teachers to teach us.

Education and training is projected to gain up to 503,700 jobs by 2025 according to the Future Focus Report.

The Big Picture

These days, when I go to the supermarket, I use the self check-out rather than relying on an actual person to scan and bag my groceries. This is just one simple example of a job that has been replaced by a machine. As technology develops, more jobs will become redundant, especially the relatively low skilled ones. We’ll certainly have drones, driverless vehicles and increasingly intelligent devices.  But there will certainly be jobs–service based jobs, such as nursing, teaching–that computers won’t be able to do. Because these tasks are so important and so complex, we can only trust humans to perform them. There is an element in such professions that is uniquely human.

To sum up: either look for a job where you’re creating something revolutionary or where you’re role is irreplaceably human. That’s the future.