Shift in employment due to technology

Technological advancement changes the type, number and location of jobs. Some jobs disappear because machines do them faster and cheaper, while new jobs appear that need new skills. This movement of workers from old jobs to new jobs is called a shift in employment.

How the shift happens

1. Mechanization replaces manual labour: Tractors, threshers and rice-planting machines reduce the need for farm labour. Excavators and road rollers replace hundreds of labourers on road projects.
2. Shift between sectors: Historically, workers moved from agriculture (primary) to industry (secondary) after the Industrial Revolution, and then to services and information (tertiary) in the information age.
3. Automation and computers: ATMs reduce bank tellers, online ticketing reduces counter clerks, robots replace assembly line workers.
4. New jobs are created: Software developers, data analysts, network engineers, mobile repair technicians, digital marketers, solar technicians and delivery riders did not exist a few decades ago.
5. Change in skill demand: Demand falls for unskilled and routine work and rises for skilled, technical and creative work. Lifelong learning becomes necessary.
6. Change in work location and form: The internet allows remote work, freelancing (Upwork, Fiverr) and IT outsourcing; platforms like Pathao and Foodmandu create gig jobs.

Examples

Nepalese context

• Agriculture's share of employment is falling as youths move to cities, foreign employment and service work.
• Nepal's IT export and outsourcing sector is growing and employs many young engineers.
• Traditional crafts (pottery, hand weaving, blacksmithing) are declining because of factory goods.

Effects

• Positive: higher productivity, safer and less tiring work, higher wages for skilled workers, new industries.
• Negative: temporary unemployment for unskilled workers, income inequality, migration, loss of traditional skills.

To manage the shift, governments must invest in technical education, skill training (CTEVT), re-skilling and social protection, and in poor countries like Nepal use labour-based technology where labour is cheap and plentiful.