Over the past 50 years – from the Silent Generation’s young adulthood to that of Millennials today – the United States has undergone large cultural and societal shifts. Now that the youngest Millennials are adults, how do they compare with those who were their age in the generations that came before them?
In general, they’re better educated – a factor tied to employment and financial well-being – but there is a sharp divide between the economic fortunes of those who have a college education and those who don’t.
An MIT study predicts when artificial intelligence will take over for humans in different occupations.
While technology develops at exponential speed, transforming how we go about our everyday tasks and extending our lives, it also offers much to worry about. In particular, many top minds think that automation will cost humans their employment, with up to 47% of all jobs gone in the next 25 years. And chances are, this number could be even higher and the massive job loss will come earlier.
So when will your job become obsolete? Researchers at the University of Oxford surveyed the world’s best artificial intelligence experts to find out when exactly machines will be better at humans in various occupations.
Understanding what the next generation will bring to the workplace
Remarkably health-conscious, radically inclusive, highly entrepreneurial and competitive. These are just a few of the words used to describe Generation Z, which includes individuals born after 1995. These characteristics are important to recognize when considering Gen Z’s overall impact on the workforce, but it’s also important to consider what other traits they exhibit that could jolt an organization.
This generation is already larger in number than millennials, and therefore is truly the future of the global economy, an economy that is already at our doorstep. Is your business prepared to attract, retain, develop and engage them? What makes this population so unique, and what does this mean for your company?
As a futurist, I’m often asked about the future of jobs. It is a concern for policy-makers, employers and the general population alike. What I realized, however, is that no one cares about losing the job itself. What they are worried about is how they will make a living in a future where they have become obsolete.
And yes, the fear of artificial intelligence (AI) is real. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates AI can automate 50% of all paid tasks today. Our primitive machine learning AI can easily complete repetitive human tasks better than any human could, including recognizing speech, context, shapes, and images. These narrow AI can also complete tasks like navigating an unpredictable field of obstacles, play an instrument, analyze large amounts of unorganized data and more. In 2021, AI will safely complete repetitive tasks with random components, like driving vehicles on crowded streets better than any human driver.
The speed at which AI is improving is astounding. The smart software is improving at an exponential rate since our software engineers use older versions of AI to help them program AI software updates.
In fact, developments in AI is so impressive and there is so much money invested by major well-known multinationals right now that most AI experts expect a human-level AI to emerge before the year 2040.
What will happen to the job market between now and the year 2040?
Today, we are no longer confined to what nature or natural intelligence must offer. From the steam engine to electricity and digital transformations to artificial intelligence, molecular manufacturing and bioengineering, each new transformative innovation has brought us a new (man-made) way of doing things in ways that nature did not provide for.
As new ways of manufacturing and production are emerging, they are taking away an ever-increasing number of tasks and roles previously performed by a human labor force. Furthermore, the automation, self-improvement, self-replication and distributed nature of the manufacturing processes are producing products and goods at a minimal cost. As a result, each of these existing and emerging technologies, individually and collectively, will likely one day eliminate the need for human labor for production of goods and services—shaking the very fundamentals of economics as we know today.
Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect is the highest paying certification of 2019, paying an average salary of $139,529.
Certifications in virtualization and cloud computing pay an average salary of $127,494 this year, up from $112,955 in 2018, a 12.8% increase in just one year.
Five of the top 15 highest paying certifications of 2019 are for cybersecurity expertise, and they pay an average of $115,867.
Project Management Professional (PMP®) certifications increased in value by 18.6%, jumping from a median salary of $114,473 in 2018 to $135,798 in 2019.
The 2019 survey’s findings regarding the most lucrative IT certifications are summarized in the article, 15 Top-Paying IT Certifications for 2019. The study is global in scope, with the top 15 certifications reflecting U.S. market demand and salary levels. A certification had to have at least 100 survey responses to ensure that the data was statistically valid, and the certification exam has to be currently available.
The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.0% in January 2019, while the labor force participation rate hit its highest mark since 2013. Overall, the report indicated that the U.S. labor market is still chugging along.
And some jobs are growing faster than others. Construction and extraction jobs are in high demand in the U.S., along with installation, maintenance, and repair services. Production jobs are also quickly developing, as are mathematical and technology-focused occupations.
Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and projections from the government-backed Projections Managing Partnership (PMP), we mapped out the top jobs by growth rate (as opposed to plentifulness).
These are the fastest-growing jobs in each state. Titles edited for clarity.
Jody Greenstone Miller, co-founder and CEO of Business Talent Group, has teamed up with global search firm Heidrick & Struggles to bring indie talent to big companies.
One of the biggest challenges for freelancers is winning new business. Even the most experienced pros often dread pitching new clients to win projects—a job that was often done by the sales or business development team in previous corporate careers.
Some of the most sought-after free agents may not have to hustle up work in the same way in the future. More big companies are looking for high-level freelancers the same way they find other talent: through headhunters.
In a new partnership that reflects the trend, Heidrick & Struggles, a Nasdaq-traded, global executive search firm, announced it is collaborating on an exclusive basis with Business Talent Group (BTG), a high-end marketplace for on-demand independent talent. Heidrick & Struggles will give its clients access to professionals in BTG’s network for project-based assignments.
In an effort to secure the best talent on the market, more and more companies are expanding their applicant pool to include professionals without a traditional college degree.
Job search site Glassdoor compiled a list of who some of these companies are, with top employers like Apple, Google and IBM making the cut. Recently, FlexJobs examined that list to see which companies are also in their database with open positions that allow employees to work from anywhere. (FlexJobs notes that while some of the available work-from-home positions at these companies do require a college degree, there are many open positions that don’t.)
Take a look at the list below to see which flexible companies you should consider working for if you don’t have a four-year college education:
Hope this nice couple isn’t feeling too guilty about taking their vacation.
About a month ago I got a call from a journalist named Leslie Stevens-Huffman wanting to interview me about vacations and management. She’d noticed I’d written on the subject before (“Why America Has Become ‘The No-Vacation Nation'”) and that I’d been critical that large numbers of U.S. employees (47% in one survey) were not using all their vacation time.
“If you are ambitious, if you’re thoughtful, if you understand yourself, and how to grow yourself, and how to learn, you will be wanted and needed, and you will find yourself progressing in the field,” an expert says.
When companies such as Marriott International, Yahoo! and Equifax experience a data breach, the consequences are huge for customers whose personal information has been accessed by criminals or enemy states. And so it’s no surprise that major players in the private and public sector are boning up their cybersecurity to avoid such PR and real-life disasters.
Technology is continuing to change the landscape for the job market.
PayScale recently released a report of its “hottest jobs” of 2018, and technology dominated the list of fastest-growing occupations. Design and communication positions also cracked the top 10.
“The abundance of data has necessitated [hiring people] to analyze, model, store, and protect this important commodity,” PayScale Chief Economist Katie Bardaro told Yahoo Finance. “Therefore, the jobs we see as the most in demand are those that fall into these categories: data scientist, data warehouse engineers, and cybersecurity specialists.”
