The world of changing work

 The world of changing work

The world is changing. A very big change is the change in the character of the work. Artificial intelligence (AI) and the advent of digital technology around the world are changing the structure and functioning of the economy unimaginably. It took 30 years for IKEA, a well-known Swedish furniture manufacturing company founded in 1943, to expand into Europe, and today, seven decades later, its annual sales are  42 billion; However, the number of users of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has reached one million in just two years, with sales of 600 billion in 15 years. This unprecedented prosperity is due to the well-being of an integrated Internet-based digital technology. This is the main theme of the World Bank's 'World Development Report 2019' published a few months ago: The Changing Nature of Work.

In developed countries, the number of people working in the manufacturing industry is declining. In countries such as Portugal, Spain, and Singapore, there has been a 10 percent reduction in employment since 1991. The center of gravity of the work has shifted to the service sector. In low-income countries, labor-intensive industries are more prevalent, where a share of the labor market still survives in the manufacturing industry, but even there the growth is mainly in those services. The international job market has created a demand for digital technology-based skills, which can be matched by low-wage low-income countries. For example, an American company has created 20,000 software programmers in Africa with the help of their free online tools, who can work with them or their clients. By 2024, the company plans to create 100,000 such programmers in Africa.

Workers are losing jobs fast in the manufacturing industry. According to the Periodic Labor Force Survey, even in countries like India, jobs in the manufacturing industry increased from 5.39 crore to 5.9 crores between 2004-5 and 2011-12, an average of 5.64 crores in the last six years. 5 lakh people are losing their jobs. At the same time, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are replacing man-made labor as organized workplaces are filled with the impact of cutting-edge technology. Wage costs are falling to almost zero, and profit margins are skyrocketing.

As a result, in the future, on the one hand, a class of the very rich is going to be formed, on the other hand, unpaid machinery working 24x7 for production in their workplace. About 70-80 percent of the people in society are leaving the production premises. What is their way now? A world of personal service is being created around the luxurious life of the very rich class that is 20 or 30 percent; Which some call ‘Servant Economy’. In the last year, the growth rate of the slave economy in the United States has been 7.1 percent, which has surpassed all other sectors. Manicure, pedicure, dog-walking, caring for the elderly, childcare, massage, beauty care, skincare, driving are just a few of the many services available today. There is no social security, the average salary is very low, there is no job security.

One of the major changes in the structure of the working world is the spread of the gig economy. Gig Economy is a world of contract-based temporary work, such as taking home food purchased with various apps to the buyer's home. The development of this gig economy is rapidly expanding the ‘independent’ workforce around the world. Also, Platform Firm, an app-based trading company, is expanding in almost all countries. One such Chinese online platform company has organized English learning through the online communication of 60,000 American teachers with 500,000 students in that country.

This change is also having a big impact on the world of education. The children who will be admitted to primary education in 2018 will grow up and enter into occupations and jobs that do not exist now. As a result, when a student passes out after four or five years of taking a technology lesson in college, his or her learning technology may have changed drastically. So the World Bank has emphasized the formation of human capital but has not formulated any specific form of it, only asking the government to focus on primary education and health. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post, but it is important to note that this is not the case.