A class of “unnecessary” people – how will our lives change  

By 2020, the development of technologies will reduce the number of workplaces in the world by 5 million and will lead to the emergence of “unnecessary” jobs, informs “Investor”.

An economic forum held in Davos this year was extremely unusual. A robot Sofia was the most popular speaker. Visitors of the forum have witnessed inevitable changes in the world labor market and the implementation of robots. While Ukrainians are busy discussing political processes, the world is changing by making adjustments to the labor market.

There are about 8 thousand titles in the Ukrainian job classifier. 4,000 of those already don’t exist, and 2-3,000 will disappear in the near future. Disappearing of professions is not a disaster because it happened before. People can always change their qualification a bit. However, what will happen when robots will start to perform same work people do? Who will an employer choose: a person or a robot?

Experts note that expanding of the capabilities of robots will lead to the appearing of the “unnecessary” class and its gradual increase to 35-37% of the population, and in some countries – up to 40%. Nowadays, in the USA, there are 10-12% of “unnecessary” people, in Israel – 8-9%, in South Korea, where a cult of work exists – 1-2%.

“Unnecessary” people are those who because of reluctance or lack of opportunity, will not be able to master the professions that will be in demand in the post-information society. Often, they are elderly people who have lost their jobs and do not want to agree on anything less, or young people who overestimate themselves:

“There is a natural evolution of the labor market, where only brilliant people survive. The level of automation is determined by the availability of technology, and a high level of IT and robotics allows us to do things we have been dreaming about for decades. For example, at Tesla Motors, there are 3,000 employees and 160 robots (5.3% ) who carry out such tasks as assembling, painting, and welding. And, of course, Japan sets the tone for the overall industry density – 300 robots for 10,000 employees (3%)”,

says a robotics technician from Skoltech, professor Dmitry Teteryukov.

To sum up, we see a tendency to change. Robots are already working and a number of functions that they perform will grow. It is hard to tell which profession will be needed at the market. The only thing we know for sure is that in order to remain in demand one will need to learn constantly, be flexible and adapt to change.