Impact of Technology on Jobs: Pros and Cons

One of the best things that happened to man was the advent of technology. Impact of Technology can be seen in our lives every day, even when you’re reading this article. It transformed us from the Stone Age to a better stage of life (Computer Age). The good thing as well is that since the inception of technology, there has been progress and development. Man has always been thinking of how to make things better and improve on previous inventions. This has its way of making life better and comfortable for men.

Improvement in technology has an impact on almost all areas of life. Learning, employment, transportation, communication, jobs and many other sectors of the economy enjoy the effect of technology. When you look at the industrial sector, it is evident that the impact of technology is enormous. It not only affects the way industries produce their goods and services but also impacts the number of workforces hired and the way this hiring process is done.

As a result of this, technology has its good and bad effect on jobs. Automation, for instance, is one of the fantastic effects of technology in the industry. While this comes with the advantage of making the production of goods and services easy, it comes with the glaring disadvantage of reducing human efforts. While this might be a good thing in some sense, it led to the reduction of jobs. All in all, technology has its good and bad side on jobs. Even though there have been many debates on whether technology is a blessing to man or not, with this article, we will explore the impact (both positive and negative) of technology on jobs.

The Positive Impact of Technology on Jobs

1. Technology, without a doubt, was a blessing in disguise. Without technology, for instance, man will still be limited to old and ancient ways of doing things. Production will be limited since manpower is slow and restricted. The birth of technology, however, came with a lot of scientific discoveries. This led to new and improved ways of doing things. This made production better, improved output, and maximized profits. This led to the creation of employment for skilled labor. This is one of the positive impacts of technology on jobs.
2. Another impact of technological development is that it improved the life of man. Technology helped us produce things in a better way, which enhanced living. Trains have existed for donkey years. However, the trains we had then were either powered by coal or steam. They were not only slow but also made a lot of noise. With the improvement in technology, man developed speed trains. It operates at laser speed, is quiet and more comfortable. There are many areas of life that the improvement of technology has improved like that.
3. Another positive impact of technology on the job is an increase in production. Increased production also helped companies maximize profit. Man, unlike a machine, is slow and limited. In a discussion with a friend who works in a Maggie production company some months ago, he said they have gigantic machines that produce 10 million cubes of Maggie per hour. There is no human effort that can match and surpass this. This, without a doubt, led to increased revenue for the company and create jobs for skilled labor to handle these machines. If people take advantage of these improvements in technology, they can be gainfully employed. Over the years, there is a surge in demand for web developers, data scientists, and many more. These are jobs that will not exist should technology have remained undeveloped.
4. The nature of employment is also changing. This is because prospective employees are made to showcase their skills and what they can do. These days, we have assessment centers for recruitment in which potential candidates perform roles that closely mimic their daily jobs when hired. They have a group discussion, which enables the panel access to how well they will perform during board meetings. There could be debate and presentations which allow the panel also to access how well they can articulate their points and express their argument. This helps employers hire only the best that can fit and perform well on the job.

As beautiful and appealing as the positive impact of technology is on man, there are negative impacts as well. The next section explores this.

The Negative Impact of Technology on Jobs

The most glaring effect of technology on jobs is a drastic reduction in available jobs. Technology drastically changed and altered ways of doing things. This made some jobs redundant and irrelevant. We cited the example of speed trains in some points above. When speed trains came, the train company will have had to employ a new set of manpower with the skill set to handle the technological demands of speed trains. This means that unless the labor force of the previous generation of train updates their knowledge, they are automatically out of a job.

There are some instances that manpower entirely becomes irrelevant. The advent of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) made cashiers that pay out money useless. This led to their mass reduction and created mass unemployment for people in such a sector. Hence the improvement in technology had a significant blow on the workforce with low skilled workers suffering massively. However, people that took advantage of technological advancement and updated their skills survived. This leads to the next point.

For people to stay relevant in their jobs, they had to update their skills, or they will permanently be out of a job. This could be overwhelming for people who could not afford the expense that comes with updating their knowledge. Besides, the demands of learning something strange and advance were a lot to take in for many. This led to the survival of the fittest. The ones that could not update their knowledge had to look for other means to survive. This also led to a wide income gap between skilled and unskilled labor.

Concluding Remarks

Whether humans like it or not, technology has come to stay. It is left to the workforce to take advantage of the shifting paradigm and update themselves with the necessary skills to become relevant. If people can take the pain to shift from unskilled and semi-skilled to specially skilled workers, they will continue to be relevant. Also, they will ensure their survival in a world of continual technological advancement.

Without a doubt, the positive impact of technology on man has far outweighed the adverse effects.