Could you imagine in childhood that cars without drivers and delivery of packages by drones really will exist when you grow up? And yet, in order to get more room for the new, the old sometimes has to leave.
Here are 10 jobs that are unlikely to exist in 2030. Instead of any of these specialties, it is better to choose one of the most sought-after professions of the future.
10. Librarians
Although there will always be paper books in the world - regardless of the success of their electronic copies - the librarians who catalog them, can already be attributed to the “endangered” specialties.
Many public libraries are struggling to remain open due to reduced funding, while academic institutions have long begun to translate their texts into digital format for more convenient storage and retrieval of information.
Although expanded access to literature is good, it's sad to see libraries and their useful and knowledgeable keepers a thing of the past.
9. Cashiers in supermarkets
In the past few years, there has been increasing talk about the reality of a cashless society in which contactless payments are as widespread as possible.
Although not all countries are ready for such an innovation, and many people still prefer to use cash to better track their expenses, one thing is certain: there are more and more self-service checkouts every year. According to the forecast of the British analytical company RBR, made back in 2016, their number in the world will reach 325 thousand by 2021.
Cash desks like this have become commonplace in many large supermarkets and popular fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, which means that the cashier profession is becoming unpopular.
8. Postmen
Although couriers will still be needed to deliver packages, the work of postmen delivering letters every morning is becoming less and less popular. This is mainly because the things they deliver are slowly moving into the “virtual realm”:
- utility bills can be viewed and paid online,
- information about the receipt of the parcel is displayed in the “Russian Post” application or similar applications in other countries, there is no need for paper notifications,
- less and less people send paper letters to each other.
7. Stewardesses and flight attendants
According to experts, by 2022 we will see 7% fewer of these charming ladies (and men) who welcome us on board air transport. As air carriers struggle with each other, offering more competitive prices and optimizing all kinds of expenses to maximize profits, the huge number of jobs for stewardesses and cabin crew has already been reduced, and hiring forecasts for the next decade do not promise any positive changes.
In addition, most modern aircraft are equipped with screens to demonstrate safety rules and advanced automated safety equipment, and the presence of flight attendants becomes an unnecessary luxury.
6. Taxi controllers
Due to the growing popularity of applications such as Uber and Yandex.Taxi, along with travel companion search services, the profession of a taxi dispatcher may disappear in the near future.
Ultimately, it will be replaced by even more intelligent applications that can direct cars to where passengers need to.
5. Lumberjacks
The top 5 professions that may disappear before 2030 are opened by courageous, complex and alas, not the most demanded work.
More and more paper products are becoming digital, and according to forecasts, the demand for logging services will be reduced by 9% by 2022.
The need for deforestation will not disappear, but in the future the human labor of lumberjacks may be replaced by more complex and advanced technologies.
4. Bank tellers
How often do you go to the bank to withdraw cash? Probably not very often - and this reduces the need for cashier people who process transactions in financial institutions.
Consumers enthusiastically accepted the options of online banking and mobile banking, and ATMs that work around the clock and seven days a week are very attractive for people whose work schedule does not allow them to visit the bank during traditional business hours.
3. Secretary-typists
Yes, there are still people who make a living by printing letters and other documents dictated by their superiors. Unless old-fashioned typewriters have replaced modern computers.
However, the profession of secretary-typist is rapidly becoming obsolete thanks to innovations such as voice recognition, although they are still far from perfect.
2. Mail sorters
Representatives of this profession sort local and international correspondence, parcels and parcels, work with conveyor belts and other equipment for processing and sorting mail and sending it along the route.
However, new automated mail routing systems require less human help. The number of mail sorters is steadily declining due to the limited budgets of the postal service and the ever-increasing use of email.
1. Fast food chefs
To keep prices low, the fast food industry is always looking for new and more effective ways to do business. Especially when fast food workers demand higher pay. This means that cooks are replaced by machines at every convenient opportunity.
And in Singapore, the new Chef-in-Box cafe format, VendCafe, has already been successfully tested. There are vending machines installed that offer a wide range of dishes according to recipes from different cuisines of the world - from Japanese and Malay to Western and Indian. No cooks and cashiers, no attendants. Convenient, right?
What to do in order not to become a representative of a vanishing profession?
A tech giant Dell report back in 2017 claims that 85 percent of the jobs that will be available in 2030 have not yet been invented, and the technology landscape will become unrecognizable over the next 13 years.
“The pace of change will be so fast that people will learn“ right now ”using new technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality. The opportunity to gain new knowledge will be more valuable than the knowledge itself, ”says Dell.
Many of the professions that will become unpopular in 10 years will be modified, not completely destroyed, and the skills acquired by employees can be transferred to other roles.
Willingness to learn and change jobs will be important attributes of success in the labor market in the near future.
If you want to get maximum protection from the claws of progress, we recommend starting a career in one of the following 3 groups:
- Creative work - for example, an artist, designer or architect. Even the most powerful computers cannot and are unlikely to reproduce true human inspiration in the future.
- Relationship-based work that requires building and maintaining complex relationships with other people. Examples are a doctor, teacher, animator or guide-translator.
- Specialists with technical education - engineers, turners, programmers, adjusters of automatic lines, car mechanics, locksmiths, toolmakers, technical analysts, etc.