Is Your Job One of These 10 That Could Disappear?

When people can order taxis online or through an automated phone system with the request passed on to a driver via email, text or voice mail, who needs to sit behind a desk? Consumers get connected to the nearest available vehicle and drivers are out from seeing their income controlled by the dispatcher.

We've already become accustomed to seeing self-service check-out lines in many stores. Consumers scan their own goods and insert payment into the electronic system. As stores add more wireless electronic tags to items, it will eventually become unnecessary to even scan, as the contents of a shopping cart can quickly be totaled. There will be need for some attendants, but nowhere near the number of people currently employed as cashiers.

This may seem like one of the least likely vulnerable jobs. How much more cutting edge can you get in communications than social media? That is true, but younger generations are growing up with the technology and arrive in the workplace fluid in its use. It would be like saying you needed an expert to use a TV or telephone. Furthermore, marketers and other communicators in companies would similarly know social networks inside and out.

In addition, there are five other positions — people greeter, photo laboratory associate, head cashier, data entry clerk, and courier — that are quickly declining in demand on Workopolis. They could go the same route as the above supposedly doomed positions: robots can replace greeters, people can print out their own photos or look at them on screen, head cashiers and data entry clerks are really variations on two of the positions above, and drones could replace couriers.

Erik Sherman is a widely published writer and editor who also does select ghosting and corporate work. Follow him on Twitter at @ErikSherman

By AOL Jobs