What this means is because of the IT revolution, people can be hyper-connected on the global scale, allowing them to pursue less expensive & more effective economic activities. Many jobs became possible to be outsourced overseas. This is what has happened in the U.S.A. as well as in Japan. This has caused another change in terms of how we would have to work & what our work conditions would be like.
The book describes the today’s job market can be divided into the following 3 segments:
1. Non-routine high-skilled jobs
2. Non-routine low-skilled jobs
3. Routine middle-skilled jobs
The first one “Non-routine high-skilled job” is one whose function cannot be replaced with a computer or robot, which therefore cannot be outsourced offshore. This type of work includes engineers, programmers, designers, financiers, senior executives, stock and bond traders, accountants, performers, athletes, scientists, doctors, lawyers, artists, authors, college professors, architects, contractors, chefs, specialized journalists, editors, sophisticated machine tool operators, and innovators.
The second one in a job market is a job, involving tasks that have to be done manually on the spot by a human. No robot or computer can take the place of these jobs, which therefore cannot be outsourced overseas. The authors says this type of work includes dental assistants, hair-stylists, barbers, waitresses, truck drivers, cooks, bakers, policemen, firefighters, construction worker, deliverymen, plumber, electrician, maid, taxi driver, masseuse, sales clerk, nurse and healthcare aid at a nursing home.
The third one is a job involving a lot of standardized repetitive tasks. This type of work includes factory-assembly work, number-crunching and filing in the backroom of a bank or brakeage house, routine task of reporting, transcribing, creating a Power Point presentation material for someone else.
The author says that it is this type of job that has been devastated by the merger of globalization trend and the IT revolution. It doesn’t matter if it is white-collar or blue-collar.
Summing it all up, it could be said as the following:
1. Non-routine high-skilled work becomes more lucrative.
2. Non-routine low-skilled work can pay decently, depending on the local economy and demand for the work.
3. But routine middle-skilled work will shrink or disappear.
This is not all. It is also mentioned in this book that just because you are in a “non-routine job” doesn’t mean you are safe. “If you do a non-routine high-skilled job in a routine way, your task will be subjected to outsourcing, automation, or digitization, meaning that you will lose your position with an economic squeeze.
I remember that as a child I had been told by teachers, parents, and other grownups to get good grades in order to go to a good college. If you go to college and then are hired by a good company, you will be safe.
But this has become out of date. Those adults didn’t know what the IT was, or what the globalization was like. Getting good grades at schools to work for a good company does not guarantee you will be safe.
This book also deals with an education issue in the United States. I guess many people have said already about what has been described in this book, so I’m not going to mention it here.
Instead, I want to mention what is happening here in Japan. Not much has been told about it in the English language. Here in this country, so many people (it is almost like everyone) mention the globalized economy or internationalization. These words have been like fashion. They like to mention these things as if they were chatting away about the subject of diet, beauty, gossips, etc. But nothing seems to have changed them.
As I look around in the library (where I’m writing this article), there are 20 or more Japanese highschool or junior highschool students, studying really hard. They seem to be doing the same thing as their parents had been doing. They are working so hard on their English activity drills in the same way that former generations had done but failed miserably. Most people are unable to command English even after they studied it for more than 10 years at schools. They keep studying it hours and hours each day until they successfully pass an entrance examination for college or university. They memorize enormous amount of information with having no doubt. They take all that knowledge passively. There is no chance of debating over something they study about, or of performing a presentation. I understand it is not regarded as important here. Memorizing as much as you can is what matters most. There should be no question about it.
It seems like they still believe just passively inputting much information is the only way to be competitive in the world. But the fact is they are extremely introvert and less communicative, if they are not with close friends or in their small group. It even looks it is a taboo to openly talk with someone outside their small group.
Just like more innovation should be powered by better education for every American, another kind of innovation must be applied to every Japanese individual.
This book makes me think a lot because I think I have experienced with every type of jobs described above, but I realize I am vulnerable to the environment.
Nothings is so new about what is written in that book, but this can be good to let me get some solid idea about the today’s or tomorrow’s job trend. - I have to change my mindset, just like those Japanese highschool students will need to change their idea.
I am sure I’m older than these students by 20 years or more, but I felt so close to those young people in school uniforms. - I thought we were on the same boat.
