Are robots and artificial intelligence (AI) coming for your job?
Technology eliminating jobs is nothing new, but the pace of replacement might be speeding up. Depending on your age, you may have spoken with a switchboard operator, once responsible for physically inserting phone plugs into jacks to connect your phone call.
The word ‘computer’ once referred to a person who calculated complex mathematical problems by hand.
Roughly 20 years ago I remember my teenage self being intimidated by a newfangled technology called an ATM.
More recently we have seen cashiers begin to be gradually replaced by self checkout stations at grocery stores and fast food restaurants. There’s been plenty of buzz lately around innovations like ChatGPT and their potential to someday replace white-collar workers.
According to a report by the Brookfield Institute, 42 per cent of Canadian jobs could be automated within the next decade or two.
That report found the five jobs most at risk are retail salespeople, administrative assistants, food counter attendants, cashiers and transport truck drivers.
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When I first started reading about automation replacing jobs four years ago, it seemed like a looming silent disaster. An American political candidate named Andrew Yang raised the issue’s profile during the 2020 Democratic Party primaries. He based his platform on the idea that the pace of automation replacing jobs had sped up significantly — and raised some important questions.
How will people support themselves? Do we need universal basic income (UBI) to sustain people once their jobs are replaced by technology? What are people going to do to keep themselves occupied?
But this was all before the labour shortage really kicked into high gear. Just about everyone who lives in the Parksville Qualicum Beach region is aware of how desperate so many of our local businesses are for workers. A variety of those vacant jobs are considered at high risk for replacement by automation. I imagine the costs of implementing automation are a big challenge anywhere, but especially at a local business, even if it saves money down the road.
The cost of living and the housing crisis are definitely part of the labour shortage, but they are just a symptom of a greater issue — the world is getting older and we are running out of people to staff all kinds of jobs.
The generations are getting smaller. There are fewer Gen Z’s than there ever were Millennials and the same goes for the Baby Boomers, many of whom have already retired and the rest are nearing retirement age.
The labour shortage is not going anywhere.
Canada’s population is surging (we crossed the 40 million citizen mark as of June 2023) but this is only possible through mass immigration from countries with a surplus of young people willing to relocate. Those younger (demographically speaking) countries are aging too, and some of them quite rapidly, such as China.
The rising cost of living could easily make Canada a less attractive destination for those immigrants anyway.
Soon enough, we will not be able to count on a steady stream of workers immigrating to our country, and then the labour shortage will really bite — unless we are prepared.
So will technology take our (vacant) jobs? Hopefully!
PQB News reporter Kevin Forsyth can be reached at kevin.forsyth@pqbnews.com