It is unlikely that I will change my toon any time soon – simple answers to complex problems don’t result in long term solutions.
I know many are frustrated that their current jobs are fading away. At the same time, how is there so much buzz about an abundance of jobs not being filled? Either we have a shortage of jobs or we have a shortage of workers – but we can’t have both. And the truth is…we have a job mismatch.
As the world evolves, so does the marketplace. Accordingly, job needs change too. This is a completely predictable cycle. So why is it being highlighted more now than it likely was decades ago? The short answer is that due to changes in technology, the world is evolving at a much faster rate than in the past. The next fact is that people are living longer and therefore working longer. Translated, where jobs of the past existed for an entire lifetime of a worker, now, jobs cycle out before they retire.
Continuous learning and change are an unavoidable requirement to maintain employment into the future.
Yet, generations of people have not had to face this change expectation. Frankly, I’m not sure many even realized it was coming unless they were living in metropolitan cities and keeping abreast of all the movement happening within businesses of all types. Yes, there are people in this world that follow every news story and every innovation – but those people do not make up the majority of us. Most of us just want to get through the day, take care of our kids, and maintain our homes. It seems like it should be simple – just bring back jobs that have been lost.
But simply re-adding old jobs will work only for a short period of time…just until the world shifts to an unrecognizably fast-paced, ever changing, blur of constant expectation, data consumption, and information overload.
It’s no wonder at all that people are feeling overwhelmed and wish for their previous or current jobs to be reinstated or maintained. Unfortunately, simple solutions such as bringing back jobs in areas that will become obsolete, is only delaying the inevitable.
We need to educate our people of all ages for jobs of the future. It’s not about simply creating a means for Americans to take care of their families, it’s about national economic success and leadership.
Regardless of political party, education to elevate our people’s opportunities is an investment that makes sense at the human and fiscal levels.
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash Photo by Saulo Mohana on Unsplash Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash