FutureWork

In 1979, GM had roughly 840,000 workers and $11,000,000,000 in earnings. In 2012, Google had roughly 38,000 workers and $14,000,000,000 in earnings. Today, GM employs around 216,000 employees worldwide and earns about half what they did in 1979. These statistics represent that while work may not be decreasing, jobs certainly are.

I had the distinct pleasure to attend the annual Emerging Issues Forum hosted by NC State’s Institute for Emerging Issues this past Monday at the Raleigh Convention Center where the above statistics were presented. This year’s focus was on FutureWork. Some have called what we are living through as the “fourth industrial revolution” and it’s not hard to see why. Automation has already displaced thousands of jobs, technology is ingrained in every facet of life, and a shift in demography further complicates our current scenario. While we have not seen a massive uprising akin to the Luddites of the 19th century Industrial Revolution, there’s certainly growing concern and discontent with technological unemployment seeping into our state’s factories and warehouses and what that means for a rising precariat worker class.

More than one million North Carolinians are currently employed in the most vulnerable of jobs and it’s estimated that nearly half of all current jobs in NC will be displaced by technology within 30 years. Those are staggering and sobering statistics. So what are we, as a state, to do? The second day of the forum was focused specifically around that question, in fact, the title of day two was “A Future of Good Jobs in North Carolina: Defining Smart Strategies in Key Sectors.” The sectors of focus were Banking & Finance, Education, Energy, Healthcare, and Governments/Smart Communities. I’ll post in the coming days the results of the second day plenary sessions as soon as they are made available but I wanted to make you all aware of the Forum as well as convey how fortunate we are that we live in a state that is taking a proactive approach to addressing the above issues. As an example, one of the speakers was asked by an audience member if he knew of any other state that was doing what NC has been for the better part of 30 years by hosting the Emerging Issues Forum…his answer was “no.” We are extremely fortunate to have a history of foresight and leadership in our state that places these conversations front and center and that is something we can all rest easy about.

-Scott