If you are white collar then it's going to "disrupt" your field.

I work in tech. I got laid off last year. I wasn't at Alphabet or Amazon or anything. Much smaller company. But AI "optimization" has ravaged the tech industry and not just programmers. Admins, database specialists, network specialists, developers, you name it. Our job market is absolutely fucked.

In my county, a major metro area in the US (like, top 10) craigslist used to be the place to get real job postings. If it wasn't a recruiter then your odds of getting a callback from a job posting there is pretty high. There are plenty of postings for other fields like mechanics and tradesmen and so on. For the few tech categories: nothing in the last month. Zero postings. Not even recruiter ads. Literally nothing. It's a wasteland.

I've been told to "go back to school." I'll be 41 soon. I'm still paying off my computer science degree. It's worthless. What else should I go for? Accounting? HR? These are going to be taken by AI, too. Will it be a mistake? Sure. They don't care. They'll do it anyways.

When I got my degree my wife and I were homeless. We just got back out of the hole in the last 10 years. I was finally building savings. It'll be gone in 60 days. She was laid off on Friday. Her industry is in property finance. Another gutted industry. She has to change industries, too.

What is to be done?

  • LaughingLion [any, any]
    ·
    6 months ago

    Yes. I'm thinking trades like laying down network cable or electricians. Nobody I know in fields like this are seeing any issues with AI on their paychecks. Ain't no robots threating to take away the job of my engineer friend who installs pipe for the water company that hooks up to apartment complexes and business high-rises. His crew are still outside in the heat digging the ditch and getting muddy.

    • BoxedFenders [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      While automation and AI won't directly replace tradesmen and physical laborers, the massive layoffs in the white collar sector will create millions of unemployed workers seeking work in industries that won't be under threat from it. Wages will be driven down from the glut of available workers coupled with the shrinking middle class who employ their services. Much like climate change, capitalism will utterly fail to handle this transition.