The labour market of today is evolving quickly, with workers unable to rely on staying at one job or enjoying a certain working enviroment for their entire career. These developments are unsurprising considering the ever increasing competition in today’s world and the tremendous advancements in technology, with growth in the field of artificial intelligence(AI) being a major culprit.
In modern society, people are more educated than ever before. It has never been easier to learn the skills required to get into the industry one is interested in, resulting in a large number of applicants to every job vacancy. This surge has made it almost impossible for employees to hope to maintain a steady job without showing constant improvements in performance. Additionally, the influence technology, specifically AI, is having on the working world is undeniable. Since AI models can do certain tasks in the workplace just as good as, if not better, than human employees, in a fraction of the time, it is unviable for companies to retain an entirely human workforce if they wish to be competitive. As such, tens of thousands of jobs are being lost as AI becomes more integrated at workplaces. For example, many call centres retrenched human customer service workers, replacing them with AI agents due to the decrease in long-term costs the change entails.
Employees of today need to be prepare themselves extensively in order to survive and thrive in the ‘rat-race’. Firstly, they must always be working to improve their skills. Courses, bootcamps, training needs to be a regular part of any employees life in order to excel at their job. Furthermore, making oneself irreplaceable will require gaining expertise in tasks AI cannot perform. Secondly, they should diversify themselves, making themselves qualified to work in multiple fields so that they can easily switch jobs, they should have a high degree of occuational mobility because changing jobs and industry will become more and more common over time. For instance, over the past decade workers are switching jobs every few years not only to enjoy higher salaries but to not become complacent and reliant on working at one company for an extended period of time. After all, few corporations treat individual workers with the respect and care they deserve.
In conclusion, the future is going to be challenging for employees regardless of the field they work in. With rising competition and improving AI models, those at jobs will have to ensure their technical ability is always on the rise. Moreover, diversification is of utmost importance in order to keep one’s options open and remain occupationally mobile.