Serving Franklin County, WA
Serving Franklin County, WA
For the past few decades, the clearest path to a comfortable middle-class career in America has been through college. Research shows individuals with degrees earn more on average than those without one.
Even as wage premiums for those who earned college degrees have decreased slightly since the COVID-19 pandemic, in the 21st century, individuals with a degree earned 68% to 79% higher average wages than those with a high school diploma, research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco showed.
While college graduates have benefited from technological progress and globalization during this time, the recent rise of generative artificial intelligence technologies has already come at a cost for white-collar workers in some automation-prone areas of work, according to a paper from Harvard University and colleagues from the German Institute for Economic Research and the Imperial College Business School.
Just eight months after the introduction of ChatGPT, job postings related to writing and coding saw a 21% decrease compared to other jobs requiring more manually intensive skills. The paper found that graphic design and other jobs related to making images also saw a 17% decrease in demand compared to other manually intensive jobs.
With post-college career paths no longer as obvious, HeyTutor examined academic research and expert opinions to see how high schoolers can prepare for a world where AI is everywhere.
Although uncertainty surrounds the future of generative AI, a Chicago Booth poll of U.S. economists showed some had concerns about the technology's negative impact on high-skilled workers.
Of the panelists, 32% agreed AI use over the next decade will negatively impact the earning potential of a sizable number of high-skilled workers in advanced countries, while about 2 in 5 (39%) respondents were uncertain of AI's impact.
However, this sentiment in the face of the latest technology isn't new. From the spinning jenny and cotton gin during the Industrial Revolution to more modern advancements in technology like online shopping, productivity streamlining has always posed career stability concerns for skilled laborers—much like the issues being aired now with the rise of AI.
More than 200 years ago, Luddites in England focused their efforts on destroying machines of manufacturers who used them in a "deceitful" manner that was against the standard labor practices of the time, according to Smithsonian magazine. Luddites were not against machines, however, but wanted them run by workers who were properly trained and compensated.
More recently, advancements in automation tools like robots and AI have replaced workers performing routine tasks, as the research from Harvard University, the German Institute for Economic Research, and the Imperial College Business School shows. While hundreds of studies have been conducted on how work will change in the future, none have proven conclusive. Change is happening, though, and McKinsey predicts that, within the decade, generative AI technology will be capable of median human-level performance in tasks like coordination and understanding language.
Several major technology companies have announced layoffs in 2024, with some, including Dell and Cisco, citing AI as a critical part of their strategy to compensate for the loss of thousands of employees.
So, what should a student trying to anticipate the future of the job market do?
Hone the skills that machines strive to replicate, noted a Harvard Business Review article co-written by noted business thinker Dorie Clark and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, author of "I, Human: AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique." The authors noted that AI responses only rely on text prediction and not true human experience. The essential question a student must ask while learning is, "What can I do that a robot can't?"
The Harvard Business Review recommends undertaking real-world tasks. "It's essential to recognize that one thing AI can't disrupt is our analog, in-person connections with others," the article noted. For a prospective professional, this means cultivating real-life relationships through meetings, meals, attending conferences, and striking up conversations. These connections will eventually become competitive differentiators in a crowded marketplace.
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