Posted 11/4/2009

THE 8,000-POUND GORILLA IN THE EMPLOYMENT DATA

The huge animal is devouring American jobs.

No, it's not China, or even Asia as a whole.

It's automation.

Think computer. Think software. Think robots. Think nano-tech.

All designed to replace people. To slash payroll. To kill jobs.

At one time our world was filled with secretaries. Now they are mostly gone and the executive is using his computer for correspondence, communications, data entry, printing and report writing. Fifty years ago, a girl could learn typing and shorthand and be guaranteed five or six job offers after graduating from high school.

Fifty years ago, every medium or large-size business had a back office called "accounting and payroll." But the computer replaced payroll and almost all accounting functions. In 1959, a boy or girl could take his high school's "business curriculum" and easily land a job.
But not anymore.

There once was a huge job market for tax preparers, but the advent of TurboTax and similar spreadsheet software reduced the number of jobs substantially.

The actuarial departments of insurance companies have shrunk under the onslaught of software and the computer. Do you remember that block-long office filled with desks where Jack Lemmon worked in the movie The Apartment? Well, they aren't there any more. Insurance, once a gold mine in jobs for mediocre college grads, has gone over to the mighty computer and a myriad of software programs.

Many a young man with a love affair with cars would graduate from high school with a couple of shop courses under his belt and head for the nearest GM or Ford factory. But now those jobs have been eaten up by automated machines. It once required 4,000 workers to run the GM factory in Fremont, California. By 1980, the plant required just 2,000 workers for the two nine-hour shifts. In that same year, Toyota stunned the world by making a complete four-cylinder engine using just one man-hour.

There was one a magical time when you could pick up a phone and reach an operator – one who was courteous and actually spoke English. Many a high school girl found a career at AT&T or one of the "Bells." And Tilly the Switchboard Operator was put out on the street by the advent of automatic switching equipment.

Do you remember when each movie theater employed ushers and usherettes to guide you to empty seats in the dark? They each had white gloves and a skillfully aimed flashlights.

And speaking of white gloves, do you recall when there were elevator operators in all the commercial buildings and department stores? (There remain a few white-gloved ladies operating automatic elevators at the United Nations in New York.)

And look at all the husky guys who delivered ice before the invention of the refrigerator. It was excruciatingly hard work, but provided incredible job benefits during World War II when the other men were in the army.

In an age when service has withered away, it's hard to remember when Macy's New York was filled with helpful salesladies – and even a "floor walker" to answer questions on the first floor.

In the 1930s and 1940s, America swung to the music of the "big band era." Actually there were a jillion little bands, too. In fact there were so many musicians a fellow named James Petrillo ran the huge musicians union and was considered as powerful as John L. Lewis, who could shut down the country by taking coal miners out on strike. But when sound was automated and music canned, the number of bands and jobs dropped drastically.

At one time, a 100-acre farm could support a family of four or five. But now there are few farmhouses and few farmers since huge automated planting and harvesting machines allow one farmer to handle 2,500 acres. In 1900, almost half of the U.S. population worked in agriculture. Now it's two and a half percent.

The job of being a housewife is now coming under pressure as the inventive Japanese create robots capable of doing household chores like cooking, cleaning and washing. (Some are even reported to offer sex.)

The future looks bleak for American jobs.

According to all recent studies, kids are getting dumber and machines are getting smarter.

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