No wonder there are no jobs out there!

In a recent presentation that was put together by our friends at the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the following factoid was shared:

“The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs . . . by age 38.”

Well, I am going to be 38 this year, and I have already had more than 14 jobs. In fact, just this year I have been …

… a ticket agent for Delta Air Lines

… a cashier at Wal-Mart and Lowe’s

… a bank teller for USAA

… not to mention my full time job at Workforce Florida.

Seriously, many of the jobs that used to be handled by entry-level call center employees or entry-level retail and service workers have been farmed back out to the customers. In the three “jobs” listed above, I provide the following clarifications:

… in order to book my trip to Boston, I log on to Delta.com where I have access to the reservation system, search out my desired itinerary, book my ticket, and pay for it … all without the help of a ticket agent or any other live person …

… at Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and a number of other retailers, often times the fastest way out of the store is by using the Self-Service registers, where you scan and bag your own items, pay for them with cash or credit, and you are on your way, again without the help of a live person …

… as for the banking experience, USAA (which caters to military personnel and their families) has used the internet and self-service mentality to create a banking system that has essentially zero bricks-and-mortar presence. All transactions are done via the internet, even checks are deposited by using a scanner and electronic transfer, and I have never in my life met a USAA bank employee even though I have banked with them for over 8 years. And I am a very satisfied customer!

My point is, we have a couple of options as we look at the future of the workforce system, not only here in Florida but also around the world. We can lament the loss of the jobs that are being pushed back to customers to do themselves, such as data entry or grocery scanning, or we can take advantage of technology and the freed-up capacity of labor to look for new markets and innovations that will keep our state, our country, our world on the path to progress and world-class talent.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t relegate more than 50 percent of students entering high school to the menial tasks that require little in the way of decision-making, independent thought or creativity. Those jobs are a fall-back position when our education system fails to produce top talent. And this is not to say that our “education system” is to blame; after all, we are in a way part of that system, we pay for it, we are customers of it, and when we tolerate substandard outcomes we perpetuate this downward spiral.

That’s my $0.02 for today!