The workforce and the way we work are rapidly evolving, and automation is one factor that gets a lot of attention. But is it the barrier many people think it is?
In an article for Quartz, Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel argues the imbalance doesn’t come from the rise of robots and artificial intelligence. Instead, he says, the bigger problem is a mismatch between skills and geography.
“Fundamentally, work is not a fixed pie which machines are eating a bigger and bigger piece of while humans have less and less. Instead, work is generated by businesses and entrepreneurs who identify economic opportunities based on problems that need to be fixed.”
— Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork
Various studies have suggested as many as 47 percent of jobs could be automated over the next twenty years. At the same time, while unemployment persists and middle-class wages stagnate, 38 percent of global companies say they’re having a hard time finding the talent they need. “Workers are not being retrained for high-skilled jobs,” Kasriel notes. “[And] talent is much more widely distributed than the jobs are.”
A mismatch of skills
According to a report by the World Economic Forum, one third of the skills that will be considered essential within the next three or four years aren’t considered important today.
Kasriel says continuous learning is key to seizing new opportunities: “In times of uncertainty, the best thing we can do is make the workforce more adaptable, entrepreneurial, and able to learn.”
The declining cost of distance
People don’t necessarily live where the best jobs are located, and technology has made it easier than ever to work and collaborate at a distance.
“There are talented people outside the largest cities, and it is more cost-effective than ever for companies to expand their talent pools to geographic areas further afield,” Kasriel said. This also benefits professionals, who then have access to higher paying work than they’ll find locally.
“We’ll only run out of jobs if the world runs out of problems to solve,” Kasriel said. Read his full commentary on Quartz >>
The post Automation Isn’t the Problem: Why Skills and Geography Can’t Be Ignored appeared first on Upwork Blog.
from Upwork Blog http://ift.tt/2mTJsgi
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