Employment in the Information Age

Employment has been massively influenced by IT. Now there are very few jobs that do not require computer skills, these mainly being office jobs. Offices have changed but that is not all what has changed. The first programme that came out was processing programmes and spreadsheet programmes which Microsoft introduced. A lot of the innovations are driven by office work. Computers are now found in all sorts of jobs when they never used to be before. They have changed rapidly and it is hard to think of a job that does not involve computers.

Businesses using ICT

It is extremely hard to think of a job that does not involve computer technology; computers are found in all sorts of jobs. People behind desks now will have a computer, for example, at the supermarket your items are scanned onto a computer, or when you are buying petrol, the information from the pump to the till is transferred over. In smaller shops it was much slower to develop but they also use computers behind the desk. There are some jobs you would never imagine using IT are now being used such as people selling insurance tend to walk around with a laptop on them with all the information they need for you. However there are some places in the world that still use the old fashioned system and it is normal for them to use it.

Negative Effects of IT on Employment

Nearly every job uses computers and requires IT skills. However from technological change, people can suffer. The result of having IT in a business is beneficial for them because it is faster and cheaper as they need less people working, therefore less wages to be paid, but this hits employment very badly. An example is people losing their jobs in the car industry because they do not need workers due to developments in using car robotics which are much more precise. This is the case for many other factory based jobs as technology has taken over and there is only need for a people to overlook the machinery, this being very few.

One of the places that IT has hit hard on is skilled workers because it has taken over. There has been a huge impact in the craft industry with wood work and metal work. These jobs have all been affected by computer aided design, as they do not need people who are skilled drawers; they just need to be skilled in computer programmes. Likewise, there are now systems where the drawing is done in one office and it simply gets mailed to another office, even if it is in another country, the design can be made up in that country and it can be mailed back.

Positive Effects of IT on Employment

Employment can benefit from IT as sometimes computers can make people’s jobs easier. They can provide people with easier routes to take and it can make things much quicker. It is bad for society when computers take over their jobs. However there have been new jobs created for example computer programmers, for people to make the computers and software. Many things are made in China and there are a lot of hard drives for computers made there.

There is a big market in the computer hardware industry as computers are becoming more in demand and so more need to be made. Also many people are needed to repair these developing computers and devices. Similarly there is a large market on online shopping such as Amazon and furthermore call centres are very reliant on IT because people who call companies, such as British Gas get connected to call centres to answer their questions even if they are no help.

You can now work from great distances and these cut out a whole range of skills. We still value hand crafted products, however they have to be very precise. Computers measure to microns because a computer can do that and people can’t and computers produce it much better as it is of a very precise measurement.

Other Aspects

Computers can take away the dirty work which people do. There are devices which computers are a part of and they can go where people can’t and they are able to monitor things in dangerous places, this is so they remove the need for people to put themselves in dangerous situations. A recent example is the space probe, Rosetta, being released into space to monitor a comet.

Sometimes computers can make people’s jobs easier as they can provide people with easier routes to take and it can make things much quicker. For example delivery services would find it much easier to use a Sat Nav to travel around, especially in areas where they do not know.

Amazon now wants to introduce their ‘Prime Air’ delivery service which transports the customers bought items by drone. The goal of this system is to get packages into customers’ hands within 30 minutes of processing their order using small unmanned aerial vehicles. There could be problems with security and long distances that is why they are taking all points into consideration before they approve this service.

Personal Experience

My own experience I have with employment in the information age is having a job in a retail shop. I have to use a lot of technology being able to perform different transactions with customers and also making transactions quicker. I am able to just scan barcodes from items and then the computer processes the rest.