Struggling Gen Z and millennial grads should consider turning their back on their degrees and retraining to become hospitality and trade workers, Randstad’s CEO warns.
This is why I’m a mechanic. Forklifts have to work, or nobody works. Whether industry is rising or falling, something has to put it up and take it down.
I’ll get paid in rice and beans to fix someone’s truck after the collapse. New boss? Same rules. Machines have to work, or nobody works.
HVAC specialists and cooling systems experts will probably be in high demand to keep the future AI overlord datafarms frpm overheating. They’ll become the new priest class lol
I’m genuinely waiting for the calls to start back up. Every 3-4 years i get several calls from some of the big contacts i used to service asking if I’m available. I might just say yes this next time and quote done insane price and see where it gets me.
Bingo. This is really dark but we used to do this as kids in the 90s when there was a similar fear of WW3 with Iraq. Shit hits the fan what can you do? Is your job worthwhile in a society where shit hits the fan? All the techbros are fucked. If you can fix a tractor? Or garden? Or sew? Build stable structures?
If everyone floods that market, they’ll be minimum wage jobs. The media always starts promoting various industries when the rich want to weaken labor power in that sector.
The article gives the example of a bartender. Not as much skill as other jobs but yes I’d expect that to be difficult to automate. Especially profitably. But that’s a far cry from claiming that is a job that can support a family with a middle class lifestyle, or that all of us white collars can do it and still expect good oay
Some aspects of a bartender’s job are already automated - there are “robot bars” where machines prepare and serve drinks. What can’t be automated are the human aspects of the job, as much as AI can mimic conversation, it can’t do empathy or really any genuine emotion which is an important aspect of a bartender/server’s job
A pub near me has a serve-yourself beer wall that works pretty well without a bartender. It meters by the ounce but that means everything has to be the same price.
I have no idea if that would scale to larger, busier places or where people are likely to get drunk.
That approach wouldn’t work for cocktails but there’s no reason you can’t have a drink maker for at least the most common stuff. But that doesn’t work for crowds or personal service, and could never cover the vast number of possible combinations
A place near me has this too, and it’s usually very empty. The thing is that it is not that serving beers and mixed liquids isn’t automatable; it’s that nobody is going to sit on a bar stool and talk to a kegerator.
The one near me isn’t set up like a line of stools at a bar. It’s a ton of tables all over the place with some arcade/bar games strewn around. In a college area so fills up pretty easily at night
I went to a taphouse like this. You were issued a lanyard with an rfid chip in it that was linked to your tab. You’d scan the chip on the tap you wanted, and pour as much or little as you like into your glassware of choice. It had the price listed on the description screen for each tap, and would charge according to what you poured, down to a pretty small amount, because you control the tap handle. Want to try a small splash for a quarter? You can!
So yes it absolutely can scale larger. This place has I think 50+ taps, and because they only needed a few people for staff for dozens of tables (they had a limited cold food menu or it could have been one person easily), the overhead seemed like it was pretty low.
We went at an off-time, but they said they stay pretty busy on weekends and stuff.
Your asking these people to put a value on empathy?
Their thinking: A customer wants a drink. Have the robot liquor dispenser create any drink the customer needs, and collect payment. Repeat as necessary. What else is required?
No doesn’t bring in profit. Rather than turning down paying customers, lobby for legislation that alcohol served by a robot is immune from liability. It’s all on the drinker alone. As long as they can keep swiping the terminal, they’ll keep getting booze.
I didn’t mean this in a doom kind of way. In many ways we have it pretty good nowadays, but some people don’t want to hear it. We have it really bad in lots of ways as well.
We’ve seen robots struggling to handle picking up boxes for like a decade now. They’re still struggling with that. Tight spaced delicate movements isn’t in the near future, yet.
Transportation is going to be the first industry majorly replaced by automation, not the trades.
Not necessarily. Soon, many jobs will be replaced by AI and robotics, or off-shored. For a few decades, software development was a path to a good, high-paying job, now many are losing to AI, and plenty of people will never work in their trained field again. That’s going to happen to more and more professions.
Trades are different, they need to be on the job. You can’t fix a toilet with AI, or a call center in India. The plumber has to be in the same bathroom as the toilet. The electrician has to be near the outlet he’s wiring. A chef needs to be able send the food to the table while it’s still hot. it can’t be made in a factory somewhere.
Robots may help, but they’ll never replace a tradesman.
There are no proper jobs, whatever you do. There is no security. Don’t listen to this CEO, a trade won’t help either.
I’m a mechanic.
This is why I’m a mechanic. Forklifts have to work, or nobody works. Whether industry is rising or falling, something has to put it up and take it down.
I’ll get paid in rice and beans to fix someone’s truck after the collapse. New boss? Same rules. Machines have to work, or nobody works.
HVAC specialists and cooling systems experts will probably be in high demand to keep the future AI overlord datafarms frpm overheating. They’ll become the new priest class lol
I’m genuinely waiting for the calls to start back up. Every 3-4 years i get several calls from some of the big contacts i used to service asking if I’m available. I might just say yes this next time and quote done insane price and see where it gets me.
Adepts mechanicus
Bingo. This is really dark but we used to do this as kids in the 90s when there was a similar fear of WW3 with Iraq. Shit hits the fan what can you do? Is your job worthwhile in a society where shit hits the fan? All the techbros are fucked. If you can fix a tractor? Or garden? Or sew? Build stable structures?
Computers were a mistake 🤣
Same, I specialise in cranes and I work on the Liebherr harbour cranes that load ships.
The goods won’t stop,
If the goods stop everything stops and even then I can fix your car or lawn mower.
The down side is every year I get closer and closer to being unable to perform my job due to my body slowly deteriorating.
deleted by creator
Eh, I’m not buying the complete doom’n’gloom perspective. Complex skilled labor is still very difficult to automate.
If everyone floods that market, they’ll be minimum wage jobs. The media always starts promoting various industries when the rich want to weaken labor power in that sector.
The article gives the example of a bartender. Not as much skill as other jobs but yes I’d expect that to be difficult to automate. Especially profitably. But that’s a far cry from claiming that is a job that can support a family with a middle class lifestyle, or that all of us white collars can do it and still expect good oay
Some aspects of a bartender’s job are already automated - there are “robot bars” where machines prepare and serve drinks. What can’t be automated are the human aspects of the job, as much as AI can mimic conversation, it can’t do empathy or really any genuine emotion which is an important aspect of a bartender/server’s job
A pub near me has a serve-yourself beer wall that works pretty well without a bartender. It meters by the ounce but that means everything has to be the same price.
I have no idea if that would scale to larger, busier places or where people are likely to get drunk.
That approach wouldn’t work for cocktails but there’s no reason you can’t have a drink maker for at least the most common stuff. But that doesn’t work for crowds or personal service, and could never cover the vast number of possible combinations
A place near me has this too, and it’s usually very empty. The thing is that it is not that serving beers and mixed liquids isn’t automatable; it’s that nobody is going to sit on a bar stool and talk to a kegerator.
The one near me isn’t set up like a line of stools at a bar. It’s a ton of tables all over the place with some arcade/bar games strewn around. In a college area so fills up pretty easily at night
I went to a taphouse like this. You were issued a lanyard with an rfid chip in it that was linked to your tab. You’d scan the chip on the tap you wanted, and pour as much or little as you like into your glassware of choice. It had the price listed on the description screen for each tap, and would charge according to what you poured, down to a pretty small amount, because you control the tap handle. Want to try a small splash for a quarter? You can!
So yes it absolutely can scale larger. This place has I think 50+ taps, and because they only needed a few people for staff for dozens of tables (they had a limited cold food menu or it could have been one person easily), the overhead seemed like it was pretty low.
We went at an off-time, but they said they stay pretty busy on weekends and stuff.
Your asking these people to put a value on empathy?
Their thinking: A customer wants a drink. Have the robot liquor dispenser create any drink the customer needs, and collect payment. Repeat as necessary. What else is required?
knowing when to tell a customer -a drunk customer “no” is a huge part of the job.
No doesn’t bring in profit. Rather than turning down paying customers, lobby for legislation that alcohol served by a robot is immune from liability. It’s all on the drinker alone. As long as they can keep swiping the terminal, they’ll keep getting booze.
It’s the Free Market
I didn’t mean this in a doom kind of way. In many ways we have it pretty good nowadays, but some people don’t want to hear it. We have it really bad in lots of ways as well.
Electrical, plumbing, HVAC are all pretty solid.
You aren’t outsourcing it. AI can’t take it. It’s manual labor.
People will pay a lot to keep shit from flowing into their house.
Heh no. All of those are being automated and dumbed down.
In a few years all you’ll need is an unskilled labourer and a robot.
We’ve seen robots struggling to handle picking up boxes for like a decade now. They’re still struggling with that. Tight spaced delicate movements isn’t in the near future, yet.
Transportation is going to be the first industry majorly replaced by automation, not the trades.
Knowing a trade, or even two, will serve you your entire life. There will always be someone in demand of your services.
Same is true for most other jobs.
Not necessarily. Soon, many jobs will be replaced by AI and robotics, or off-shored. For a few decades, software development was a path to a good, high-paying job, now many are losing to AI, and plenty of people will never work in their trained field again. That’s going to happen to more and more professions.
Trades are different, they need to be on the job. You can’t fix a toilet with AI, or a call center in India. The plumber has to be in the same bathroom as the toilet. The electrician has to be near the outlet he’s wiring. A chef needs to be able send the food to the table while it’s still hot. it can’t be made in a factory somewhere.
Robots may help, but they’ll never replace a tradesman.