Has COVID-19 Started to Reveal the Jobs of the Future?

Abstract

Are we starting to see the jobs of the future through the COVID-19 pandemic? This paper argues that in a few industries such as agriculture, healthcare, education, and mental health, we are starting to see jobs that we didn’t fully imagine a few years ago. Online appointments can increase attendance of reluctant mental health patients, such as military veterans. Conferences may have a remote option so that more people could attend, particularly from other countries. Agricultural workers could access on-site healthcare as needed, or the remaining workers, after automation, could get immediate medical help in the case of an injury. Providing protective equipment, its manufacture and distribution, could be part of a new higher standard of hygiene in providing oral care. While all the changes will not be permanent, the pandemic’s duration is giving us an idea of how the workplace will change. The pandemic has increased the role telecommunications and information technology play in an economy that had already come to rely on both to fuel a workstation.