People often respond to change with fear and anxiety, but while disruption can feel upsetting, it often brings new opportunities.
Automation has changed the way many of us work and has changed whole industries. At the same time, the tech sector has created new jobs and fields of employment, opening up vistas of previously unthinkable opportunity. Growth to the tune of thousands of new jobs a month is a significant contributor to the US economy.
There are the tech-first sectors, of course. Voice assistants are the current craze, fueling a generation of smart-home technology that promises to bring our science fiction fantasies to life with unprecedented convenience. Self-driving smart cars are making inroads into the auto industry and are hotly anticipated by consumers (although not quite as much as flying cars). Artificial intelligence will present a sea change across many sectors when it fully hits. And augmented and virtual reality are opening up new horizons, with applications stretching far beyond the obvious entertainment into sectors as diverse as healthcare and justice services.
New solutions, services, and consumer options drive job growth in an expanded pipeline of production, delivery, and support services. But equally influential is the impact of technology in other sectors. You’d be hard-pressed to find a business sector that doesn’t heavily rely on technology at multiple levels of its operations.
Equipment and heavy machinery is by and large computerized at this point, and requires technicians to maintain, adjust, and program changes. Retail businesses are increasingly computerized, with detailed fulfillment and tracking systems, not to mention the intensive technology used in marketing and sales efforts. Healthcare, while one of the sectors that relies more heavily on human intervention and is more resistant to automation, is more heavily supported by technology all the time, from robotic surgery and treatment to big-data collection and analysis for insights into more effective interventions.
In fact, the tech sector is one of the biggest job creators in the US economy, with not only higher demand than there is experienced, educated staff, to fill posts, but new types of jobs are being created all the time. This is particularly valuable as legacy industries wind down. Manufacturing has long-since moved offshore, though recent build-and-buy local movements have seen some returns. The energy sector is moving to high-tech renewable sources over mining and drilling operations. Construction sits somewhere between traditional labor and emerging technologically-mediated solutions, with a slow but noteworthy shift to increasingly engineered and manufactured prefabricated components, as well as higher tech tools invading the sector.
If you’re taking advantage of the surging growth in the tech sector by striking out on your own, you’ve probably already run into the challenges of higher demand than you can meet. While expanding and bringing on more staff is an option, outsourcing is a strong alternative for smaller operations. You can free yourself up to focus on more lucrative work by outsourcing regulatory, contractor pay, and tax paperwork to an umbrella company.
New jobs are being added in the technology sector, and in technology departments across every other sector, proving one of the strongest drivers of growth and prosperity in the American economy for many years.
