Oh No! How Did This Happen?
As industrial production figures hit bottom record-low levels recorded since 2018, unemployment rate rises again due to a series of unfortunate developments, which are:
– Sharp decline in export orders and instable domestic demand
– Rising costs and layoffs due to wage increases
– Less recruitment due to developing technology
– Young people’s tendency to be more selective when looking for a new job and the fact that they prefer to be voluntarily unemployed.
– Rapid increase in informal employment
As fewer and fewer people apply for jobs, fresh graduates, comfortable with the idea of frequently moving from one job to another, do not feel any commitment to the organisation. Half of them want a corporate life where they can be just a floating head among hundreds of other employees, and get paid at the beginning of each month even if they are relatively unproductive at work, while the other half want more flexible jobs, preferably digital, rather than corporate ones, allowing them to work four days a week without depriving themselves of fun and leisure time.
According to ILO data, an extra two million people are expected to be looking for jobs in 2024 and the poverty rate of the employed will significantly go up as productivity noticeably goes downhill.
The truth of the matter is that industrial production jobs have completely lost their appeal. “Producing” was once considered a great skill, now lost its importance as it has become an activity that can be done even with 3D printers. Designers are sought after by organisations across industries, and many jobs once performed by both blue- and white-collar workers are now handed over to artificial intelligence. Efforts that were once taken seriously, such as writing a book or an article, can be done in ChatGPT by anyone who uses the right algorithm. In societies divided into “rulers” and “ruled”, those who succeed in being self-sufficient will have a chance to survive the upcoming great change.
Very few of us can comprehend the real problem as we struggle to cope with daily life daily problems. Everyone is trying to survive external impacts they cannot control by taking internal precautions. Very few people get to build a life that can develop free of outside impacts. Besides, our education system and the social environment do not allow this anyway.
None of us really know how much of our work will be taken over by AI systems. We cannot accept that the added value created by thousands of people working with just a laptop or smart device can easily be created by machine simulation of human intelligence. In the past, agriculture was viewed as a strong partner in the development process, later it was replaced by industry, now it is dethroned by digital technology. “Education” seems to be the only viable answer to easily navigating through future challenges and helping us prepare for the next era.
In order to overcome tough times and hardening circumstances, some of which created by national and the rest by global conjuncture, executives of all levels need to be trained to get ready for the future. Digital capabilities need to be improved to stay resilient, risk monitoring needs to be dynamic and supported by the latest technology, and behavioural skills need to be further developed and regularly reinforced.
Otherwise, we will keep worrying about unemployment and production problems that we brought on ourselves. I think we first need to take action ourselves in our own environment within the bounds of our own abilities and then share successful examples with the rest of the world rather than hiding them.
