I love podcasts.
I listen to them most days when I take my dog for a walk.
A few of my favorites are:
Stuff You Should Know
Planet Money
Freakonomics
Tiny Course Empire
There are so many I like! Maybe I need to start taking my dog for longer (much longer) walks so I can listen more!
It’s a recent episode of Freakonomics that really interested me this week.
The episode was called What Do People Do All Day? (episode 605)
The stat that caught my attention was this:
60% of the jobs that Americans do today didn’t exist in 1940.
(The original source is the quarterly Journal of Economics, an article called New Frontiers, the Origins and Content of New Work, 1940-2018.)
60%??
One of the authors of the paper, David Otter, an economist at MIT, noted that no, this doesn’t mean we have 40% few jobs (we all kind of new that, right?). Actually, as we have innovated, we have just created new ones.
Here are a few that no longer exist:
Switchboard operator
Chimney sweep
Typist
Ice delivery man
Here are some that exist now that didn’t before:
Software programmer
Geriatric caregiver
Pediatric oncologist
Solar panel installer
So what’s my point?
We as a society are always creating and re-creating work. Old ways of doing things are always being rotated out for new ways of doing things based on advancements in lots of fields.
I’ve often read about how certain innovations will take away lots of jobs (looking at you AI).
I believe new innovations will take away jobs. But I also believe that AI and other advancements will create a new cycle of jobs and work.
One new cycle of work that’s happening right now is the incredible up-tick in the number of people who freelance and the number of solopreneur ‘jobs’ that have formed and been fostered by the technological advancements that let us create and communicate via our computers.
All this to say, if you are reading this, it’s likely that you are part of the crowd that’s creating what this next wave of work will look like.
In a recent interview with Hayden Brown, the CEO of Upwork, she said that last year 64 million people freelanced in some capacity.
She also said that on Upwork, there are 125 work skill categories that companies hire from.
64 million!
125!
If you are in the process of defining your business’ wedge or you are looking to pivot or make some sort of work change, check out the 125 categories. (They are listed right on the website, no sign in needed.)
Those are categories that companies both large and small are hiring in. Today. Companies are paying people with those skills good money.
Categories from design to sales to IT to writing.
It’s likely that you have some of those skills.
Take a look at that list of skills and compare them to your own.
How can you use the in-demand skills you have in your own indie-business?
Your application of your skill set to your niche creates your own unique wedge.
The next wave is here!