Jobs Are Over: The Future is Income Generation- Part 2
This is part two of a four-part series on the changing shape of employment, the emergence of the collaborative economy, and the potential impacts on higher education. Insights for this piece came in part from the recent Thomas Friedman Next New World Summit of thought leaders in education, technology, entrepreneurship, and consulting. Here are links to Jobs are Over Part 1, Part 3,Part 4, and an interview with Future of Work Researcher Stowe Boyd based upon the series.
Blurring of Education-Career-Retirement Lines
From 1950 (and probably earlier) to 2000, education was a concrete, defined and contained process that most people experienced up to their mid-twenties (perhaps into their thirties if you include graduate school). That education was then applied in a career that encompassed a singular company or functional track for the next 43–45 years until workers reached a retirement age of 65. At that point, income came from a pension that was generally sufficient to cover life expenses thereafter, since life expectancy was 68 to 73 years of age.
Fast forward to today: The lines between education, career, and retirement are all blurred to morphed with overlapping fields of learn, leverage, and longevity:
- Education is never over. Life-long learning is essential for any kind of employment.
- “Jobs” as we knew them are gone. Individuals must now create a portfolio of income generation from serial employment engagements and monetization of assets.
- Longevity has arrived. Life expectancy rises in 2050 to 90 years.
The Income Generation Portfolio: Monetization of Assets
From 1950–2000, the “job”, a discrete event that consumed 35–50 hours per week in a set location with predictable tasks and clear career pathway for forty-some years, provided income generation from the paycheck and the pension. The paycheck afforded the purchase of a home, which for most became the greatest single asset. The paycheck also contributed to savings. The retirement plan for many was the singular pension. And, health and dental benefits were bundled with employment.
Fast-forward to today, with shrinking and now-inconsistent wages for much of the population, home ownership is out of reach for many. Pensions have disappeared. Savings rates are at the lowest in 44 years[i]. With globalization as another powerful disruptor, per thought leader Thomas Friedman, U.S. jobs have now moved in three directions: up — requiring more education and technical knowledge, down — outsourced to history, and across — broken into job fragments, or short employment engagements, across the globe[ii]. This prediction was affirmed by today’s New York Time’s report, Fear Not The Coming of the Robots.
Many people will not have annual salaries or set jobs in the traditional sense, but rather they’ll generate income from leveraging and monetizing a combination of their physical assets and talents in an income-generation portfolio. They may rent a room in their house through airbnb, cook a dinner for a crowd that extends beyond their family advertised through feastly or Meal Sharing, run errands for others on TaskRabbit, drive an Uber or Lyft car, sell an idea through Quirky, market their goods through Etsy, sell clothing and accessories on Threadflip, and participate in short- and long-term freelance engagements through HireArt or Guru. (For a great, comprehensive graphic of the collaborative economy, see Crowd Companies).
This series was previously published on LinkedIn
More Information:
Heather McGowan advises presidents, provosts, and other senior leadership in higher educational institutions to work with faculty and staff to make the transformational changes necessary to thrive in this emerging new normal. Most recently she advised the President and Provost of Philadelphia University on the creation of the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering, and Commerce— the first undergraduate college in the US focused exclusively and explicitly on innovation. This college has won national awards, was endowed with a $20M gift, and is the subject of the collaboratively written book, Disrupt Together: How Teams Consistently Innovate (Pearson 2013). Ms. McGowan recently began advising the President of Becker College in Massachusetts on their strategy to transformation Becker College to Becker University with an explicit focus on addressing the complex, changing landscape of higher education.
Ms. McGowan also provides strategic visioning work (single frame visuals to represent problem statements and opportunity spaces) to corporate clients.
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[i] http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/04/saving
[ii] http://friedman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/from-the-friedman-forum-what-is-a-job-today-and-who-is-getting-hired/
