Apps: The New Job Killers

[marmar]

http://www.workinglife.org/2013/03/05/appskilljob/


from the Working Life blog:


Apps: The New Job Killers
Posted on 05 March 2013.


I’ve always avoided those self-checkout machines because those machines basically cost people their jobs — and it always distresses me that those people who still have jobs in those retail stores encourage people to use the self-checkout lines without perhaps realizing what might happen to their job as a result. And now comes the other job killer: phone apps.

Via The Wall Street Journal:

The biggest mall in town stopped staffing its customer-service desk in January. But perched on that same desk recently was a plastic cutout of a hand holding a smartphone. “Download the free app,” it said.

Apps may be creating new jobs for developers and marketers. But around the edges of the rest of the economy, they’re also starting to become a substitute for people who earn a paycheck.

And:

Personal computing and the Internet have been pecking away at the labor landscape for decades, undermining demand for everyone from travel agents to call-center workers while creating jobs in other fields. The mobile-device boom, which is putting a camera, touch screen, and a high-speed Internet connection in more and more pockets and purses, is giving businesses a new way to shift work from employees to customers.

Will there be only one job left in the end?

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[dkf]

2. A phone app doesn't do any more than a foldout map or any other posted map.

That job wasn't replaced with an app, it was probably just a cost cutting move.

[hobbit709]

3. And if your job was replaced by an app?

[dkf]

4. There is no doubt we will see jobs replaced by apps, but what they cited is a bad example

Bank tellers will be especially vulnerable if more people do deposits via pic. One of our local banks is advertising this feature.

But the biggie may be RFID combined with credit cards. That will allow you to walk out with your purchases already tallied and charged.

3d printing is also huge.

[bobclark86]

5. Just like the Internet...

killed libraries and every brick and mortar store on the planet...

My local Wamart had those self-checkout booths for a while, then they axed them because they were flaky and people wanted to talk to people.

The mall referenced is just a cheapskate which got its ass handed to it because the officials selected bad anchor stores and horrible kiosks who get outpriced by Walmart. The headline should read: "Unrealistic Profit Margins After Mismanagement: The New Job Killers."

[Silent3]

6. We need a strong economic safety net, we need fairer wealth distribution...

...and if the day comes when technology has taken over more jobs than it can create, we're going to have to figure out how to make a society work when employment becomes more optional than mandatory.

Protecting some jobs in the short term from being replaced by technology might be appropriate in some cases. In the long term, however, acting as if it's immoral to use an automated check-out line will seem as odd as getting bent out of shape because people don't take their cars to farriers for routine applications of unneeded horseshoes, as if society has a duty to keep plenty of farriers employed.