James Reed, chief executive of Reed, told Times Radio that his site advertised around 180,000 graduate jobs three or four years ago, and this is now down to 55,000.
He encouraged aspiring families to encourage their children to look into manual labour jobs as AI increasingly automates aspects of white-collar roles.
"The direction of travel is what worries me. Some people might say, well, that’s your business. But every other business is saying the same thing, that far fewer graduate opportunities are available to young people,” he said.
But guess what's a few years away? Cheap humanoid robots powered by AI. So even the manual labor jobs will start shrinking. Approx 750,000 people in Britain have jobs that are primarily driving vehicles; self-driving vehicles mean their days are numbered, too.
What we aren't seeing yet is these facts seriously impacting politics. When will that happen?
One of Britain's largest recruitment agencies said middle-class parents should train their kids for manual labor, not send them to university, as graduate job openings are shrinking so fast because of AI.
byu/lughnasadh inFuturology
19 Comments
It will happen when it will get too bad to turn things around
What if AI robots will do all the manual labor?
its not just AI but an overall terrible global economy thanks to trump and russia
I say teach them to appreciate beauty. The one skill ai will never do as good as me.
Good way of preparing the plebs for the inevitable growth in the divide between rich and poor as we hurtle towards imperialism around the world once again.
The “trades” are probably a good bet. Not everyone is cut out for college or the (often thankless unsatisfying jobs it can lead to), and some of them can be quite creative. (Woodworking for example.)
That said, what this portends isn’t good.
Eta example
The thing that no one discusses it’s that technology is not the problem. We should be happy robots and AI are can free us off our labour. The economic system is the one that needs to change.
Can it be because Reed sucks and no one uses it anyone?
I don’t necessarily think this is good advice. If everyone follows it then the market for manual labour will drop out.
Also, it’s too soon to say what new jobs might now exist. My job (programmer) has altered substantially because of AI but it’s still a job.. AI seems to be plateauing as well which makes me think a lot of jobs will go the way mine has given time.
People’s overestimates on AI and the free marketing that comes out of their mouths is like an instant 80iq score.
It’s not just AI though, the economy, for ordinary people in the UK, never recovered from 2008. Factor Brexit in as well and we’ve been fucked for well over a decade. The economy is starting to reflect that we are nearly two decades deep into a transformation into a backward, low-trust society.
Now what if… Hear me out… Coal mines. Make Britainnia Industrial Again. (/s)
Manual labour where they’ll compete with climate refugees that will do the work for nothing and still be threatened by advancing robotics.
Oh and if they’re lucky, they won’t need intense physical therapy by the time they’re in their late forties.
This is a garbage take I keep seeing. After the hype around use in the cognitive domain it will be a matter of time before Chinese manufacturing starts shitting out robots that can take care of most menial tasks and simple trade work. A single robot for 10k USD that is able to do repairs, electrical work, plumbing, maintenance and cleaning that is either owned by your appartment complex or shipped to your home by a Uber employee and rented for a few dollars an hour. Watch construction work implode as even if something takes more time the advantage of an uncaring unit with a hydraulic back beats employing humans who best case will demand tens of times the robots maintenance cost in wages just to survive.
Seems pretty useless since manual labour will for sure be on the chopping block sooner or later, much like factory jobs went to machines. He only manual labour that will survive is stuff like being an electrician, so yeah keep going to school.
I work in healthcare. Admin thinks that AI scribes should enable us to see an additional patient per hour.
Speedrunning our way back to serfdom and indentured servitude.
Company towns next being the only ones able to afford to build any housing.
At this point, it feels like self driving vehicles will be the absolute last thing to be automated.
Doesn’t anyone notice the irony – tech lords lording over serfs doing manual labour – the divide was tough to cross before – now impossible