I’ve always avoided those self-checkout machines because those machines basically cost people their jobs — and it always distresses me that those people who still have jobs in those retail stores encourage people to use the self-checkout lines without perhaps realizing what might happen to their job as a result. And now comes the other job killer: phone apps.
The biggest mall in town stopped staffing its customer-service desk in January. But perched on that same desk recently was a plastic cutout of a hand holding a smartphone. “Download the free app,” it said.
Apps may be creating new jobs for developers and marketers. But around the edges of the rest of the economy, they’re also starting to become a substitute for people who earn a paycheck.
And:
Personal computing and the Internet have been pecking away at the labor landscape for decades, undermining demand for everyone from travel agents to call-center workers while creating jobs in other fields. The mobile-device boom, which is putting a camera, touch screen, and a high-speed Internet connection in more and more pockets and purses, is giving businesses a new way to shift work from employees to customers.
Will there be only one job left in the end?
