Recent research has predicted that automation has the potential to eliminate 73 million U.S. jobs by 2030, or 46% of current jobs. The study found 37% of Americans are worried about automation replacing their job. As of 2020, globally there are three million operating industrial robots, a 10% increase from 2019. Will this dire prediction come true and how do we make our workers “technology proof?”

Technology generally creates jobs when they enable new business models and transform industries. E-commerce is a great example of automations impact on an industry. Ten years ago most customers visited a physical store to select, purchase, and take home a product. Products were transferred from producer to store to consumer, generally in bulk quantities. Warehouses packaged and distributed large quantities of merchandise for delivery to the retailers.

E-commerce allows you to order one book from an Amazon warehouse, delivered right at your door. Warehouses now produce more shipments as the quantities they ship in each order become smaller, due to their direct contact with the consumer. Robots are deployed in these warehouses to enhance human productivity. Amazon uses a Kiva robot system. Large groups of robots carry shelves of random mixed items to human pickers, creating an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). Systems like this allow humans to increase the number of smaller orders they are shipping to customers, increasing efficiency.

The increase in online shopping has caused changes in logistics, how we get goods from producers to consumers. Since 2000, the trucking industry has added over 130,000 jobs. Warehouses and storage industries have doubled the number of workers to 1.1 million during the same time period. Though employees lost their jobs at retail stores in malls, new jobs were being created in other parts of the industry as innovations were being added to the industry.

With the technological advances of 3D printing, the new industry of additive manufacturing has been created. Creating a product from scratch was helpful during COVID-19 when swabs were needed for testing kits. Harvard and MIT collaborated with the companies Desktop Metal, Formlabs, Carbon and others and 3D printed millions of swabs each week within weeks of starting the project. Many advances in this additive manufacturing lay ahead as advancement in material sciences occur. Again, a new industry creating new jobs.

As new industries are created, so are new “careers.” More than 60% of the jobs done in 2018 had not been invented in 1940. Over time we have learned that the best way to be “technology proof” and prepare for these new careers is to become a life-long learner. We need to provide our young students with the knowledge of coding, the ability to solve complex problems using computational and design thinking, and communicate effectively. We need to develop the “human skills” that computers don’t possess such as creativity, empathy, and active listening. Only then will our students be prepared for the ever-changing technological innovations and the new careers they present.

Dr. Steve Patchin is Superintendent of Hancock Public Schools. Programs he has contributed to creating include Mind Trekkers and CareerFEST, helping students explore their talents and associated careers in STEM. His research has focused on increasing development of self-efficacy in individual students.