David Shuster: Joining us now is Jane Oates, president of WorkingNation, a campaign that aims to
educate Americans about the looming labor transformation crisis. And Jane, we
don't even have names for some of the jobs that are coming to replace the 47%
that may be lost, but I gather that particularly for manufacturing companies
this is a huge deal. Jane Oates: Well I think that's exactly right.
I mean, employers are bringing automation both for safety of the workers, replacing
a lot of jobs where workers got hurt all the time, but also for efficiency and to
create a better bottom line. I think what you're seeing here is that we're making
better products in cars. With GM, in particular, but I think this is
something rampant across not only manufacturing, but other jobs as well. And
as far as a job retraining whether it's the automotive sector or manufacturing
or other sectors, like, I don't know like health care, is there a general sense now
in terms of whose responsibility it is to try to take workers who are losing
their jobs and now they give them the training or given the access to prepare
for higher tech jobs? Well, the best employers are training their current
workforce for those jobs that are future jobs and when they know their current
job is going to become obsolete. Getting those incumbent workers before they
suffer one day of unemployment is the most humane thing to do, but it's also
great for the bottom line. You don't lose a loyal worker and I think you're seeing
lots of employers doing that across across a variety of sectors. Today we're
all focusing on auto and manufacturing, but I think we've seen banks do it. We've
seen the telecom community doing it. And I think we're gonna see it more and more.
What is the best way for workers who are out there who think, 'Okay, I work in a job
or an industry where I can see it coming automation or technology is gonna cost
me my job in the next couple of years.' What's the best way that those workers
can prepare? So, you know, what we at WorkingNation really talk to workers
and employers about is this concept that's really important in the 21st
century of lifelong learning. So, if I were a worker right now in a job that
would be most vulnerable, and those jobs really are the jobs that
contain rote activities, doing the same thing over and over again, I would start
educating myself, with the help of my employer, so that before I was laid off I
had new skills. Skills in things like cybersecurity or in data and analytics.
Those are jobs of the future and there's going to be such a need. There's a demand
today, in California alone today, there are 40,000 vacant jobs in cybersecurity.
Here in Washington where I am, that number's probably double that because of
all the defense contractors. And these are jobs that are eligible, that are open
for people from the certificate level all the way up to the PhD level. And I
gather in industries like I don't know transportation, and I know there are a
lot of truck drivers out there who are deeply concerned about automated trucks
that are gonna be coming online in the next five or ten years. And yet for all
of that autonomous vehicle traffic that's coming,
you need maintainers mechanics to keep those things working it seems like
that's a huge opportunity, as well for people in terms of the jobs of the
future. That's exactly right David. And you know
having, there's entities like the public workforce system like the American job
centers who can crosswalk for those drivers where their skills and abilities,
but also what they like about work. Many truck drivers really enjoy the
autonomous nature of their job they don't want to work in an office with
twenty other people. So if they went to job counselors now and actually
crosswalk the skills that they have and saw what other industries those skills
could easily transfer to, they could begin getting ready for those jobs
now long before the first autonomous truck hits the road. Jane, if a
President Trump we're watching this broadcast right now and you there's one
thing you could tell them about the labor transformation that is coming, what
would it be? Well, I think every single person who's working today should
understand that their job will be different in six months, in a year, in two
years. Not just learning new technologies, not just learning the newest model of
the smartphone, or the newest software that you'll be using. But really the
skills that you need in the workplace are changing.
Often in workplaces now you see people working in teams, but not teams that are
alike, homogeneous teams, but cross-functional teams. So learning those
skills of how to work in a team, how to communicate better, how to understand
with empathy the people who are working with and for you. Those are all things
that are going to be incredibly important as we move forward. And
technical skills, there's just no doubt that if you right now are a digital
dinosaur if you don't know digital skills you should get working on them
right now because they are going to be in every job, in every sector as we move
forward. Jane Oates, president of WorkingNation.
Thanks so much for doing this, I appreciate it. Thank you