Where are the jobs?
“When an Indian state government recently advertized for 368 tea servers and night guards, 2.3 million people applied. Officials were overwhelmed by the number of applicants, which was roughly equivalent to one percent of the population of Uttar Pradesh…” [SOURCE: CNNMoney, September 21, 2015]
With more than 7.6 billion humans inhabiting the planet now and an average of 87 million more being added each year, where are jobs for our fellow human beings going to come from?
The problem is not new. At the end of 2015, we saw an astonishing example of just how great the challenge is, “When an Indian state government recently advertized for 368 tea servers and night guards, 2.3 million people applied. Officials were overwhelmed by the number of applicants, which was roughly equivalent to one percent of the population of Uttar Pradesh, a state in north India…Alok Chaurasia, an applicant who has a degree in electronics and communication engineering, said that any work was better than unemployment. "There are no jobs anywhere," he told broadcaster NDTV. "The moment I saw the ad... I applied.”” [Source: CNNMoney (Hong Kong) September 21, 2015: 1:35 PM ET at http://cnnmon.ie/1Gl03P4. ]
Amazingly, the applicants apparently included more than 200,000 who had graduate degrees. We are told that “extreme” poverty is down across the planet and, if the pattern continues, that will be extraordinarily wonderful news. However, what is happening to those human beings who have taken that first step up the ladder? This story and similar ones from various regions around the world raise sobering questions for the long term---as million humans are added each year and robots and AI increasingly threaten existing traditional jobs.
Will the need to support oneself (and possibly a family) jumpstart a dramatic movement to entrepreneurship among the employable, but unemployed, population? Will it lead to people choosing simpler, but still satisfying lifestyles? Or, will it lead to hopelessness and, possibly, wide-spread anti-social action as has happened in previous times of great technological change?
** What do you think? Do you believe that India’s immense job challenge is peculiar to that country and is not happening, and will not happen, across the globe?
What’s happening where you live? How can we re-envision the way people will prepare for, and find, rewarding jobs in the 21st century? Today! Not in 20 years. Where would you begin?
Join the conversation with your Comments below.. Make a difference.**
