Jobs
dry up for travel
agents and IT workers
By Alanah Eriksen New Zealand Herald Business
5:30 AM Monday Aug 13,
2012
The internet has
diminished some industries significantly - including travel agents. Photo /
Thinkstock
If you're a travel agent
or an accountant, you could be facing "extinction" by 2017.
Car manufacturers,
retail and IT workers may also need to start thinking about a new career path
as consumers increasingly turn to the internet for services and employers
outsource for cheaper labor.
The Balance Recruitment
agency has compiled a list of the top five jobs they believe will disappear in
the next five years.
Managing director Greg
Pankhurst said overseas companies were becoming more trusted by local
businesses.
"Many jobs will
become obsolete due to technological advances, while others will simply move
offshore to Asia," he said. "Offshoring is not a new phenomenon, but
people are getting a lot better at it and higher-skilled jobs are starting to
go offshore. It used to be the very basic roles.
"It is vital people
understand these changes and attempt to reskill so they don't end up becoming
superfluous."
Continues below . . .
Globalization has made reading
for entertainment, or knowledge,
more affordable than ever before.
E-books are only a fraction of
the cost of printed books!
New Zealand has been benefiting over the past few years as Australian companies outsourced services to New Zealand because it was a 'significantly cheaper' place to do business. But 'a lot of the stigma' about outsourcing further afield had been broken, Mr Pankhurst said.
A computer programmer in
India would earn about $8000 a year compared with between $70,000 and $75,000
in New Zealand, he said.
The internet had also
diminished some industries significantly, Mr Pankhurst said. Initially,
bookshops, travel agents, music and video stores were affected but now niche
and high-end suppliers of goods such as sporting goods, computers and branded
fashion items, were selling products online.
Economists were
expecting New Zealanders to spend $3.2 billion on online purchases this year,
with the figure jumping to $5.4 billion for 2016, he said.
Auckland Flight Centre
travel agent Mike van Beekhuizen said he didn't fear for his job as people
enjoyed the face-to-face experience of customer service.
"You're making
holidays come true for families, people are saving for these big trips. You get
an email from them when they come back or they come and visit you and they just
tell you about their experiences," he said.
The jobs that will
survive were those that required a human touch such as hospitality workers,
tourism operators, tradesmen, logistics workers, aged and health care and
government workers including politicians.
Peter’s Comment
It’s not all doom and
gloom because as one door closes another opens.
A hundred years ago the
world was bemoaning the loss of wooden-wheel makers for wagons so really
nothing has changed, while everything has changed.
Industries and occupations
are lost when more efficient industries and occupations take their place and
efficiency ultimately puts money in everyone’s pockets. Granted there can be
pain during transition but in the end progress means wealth for more people and
that can be seen in the growing range of products and services available.
When the wooden wagon
wheel disappeared there were few cars, aircraft or telephones. Radio,
television, computers and music tapes and discs were all products yet to be
launched. Launching those products was not just a simple matter of inventing
them and selling millions. They would have been useless until people had the
money to buy them.
Outsourcing is a dirty
word to many but it has positive benefits. It helps reduce the cost of goods
and services and bring them within the reach of more people.
India, with more poverty
and unemployment than any other country in the world, benefits enormously from
outsourcing and that is just part of the evolving economic globalization in
which ultimately everyone wins.
No comments:
Post a Comment