Disappearing jobs !

Sixty years ago the Australian waterfront was a labour intensive industry.   Ships were loaded and unloaded by work gangs using slings and cranes.  Each item of cargo was individually handled from the ship's hold to the wharf and this was a dangerous place to work.   Accidents were common and the unionised work force was frequently on strike.

The move to handle goods by placing them in metal shipping containers was logical.   The loading operation moved from the wharf to the point of manufacture and an operation that usually took days was reduced to a few short hours - and the labour force needed to handle containers was sharply reduced.   The days ships spent in port were reduced to a few hours and goods moved around the world at a far faster rate.

Workers at Wollongong's Port Kembla have just got the news that the next stage of " automation " is about to be implemented at their port, and it will result in 270 job redundancies.    Port operator Asciano is to implement the same degree of automation that is making Singapore, Hong Kong and many European ports low cost transportation centres where the computer rules - and human workers are reduced to a minimum.

Loading and unloading shipping containers is done by way of giant gantry cranes which are directed to individual containers by a central computer.   They travel from the ship to driver less wharf trucks which move them to a designated pickup area - where the normal transport system takes over.  This is expected to be fully operational by 2014.

Overall there will be a loss of jobs on the wharves, but automation will deliver a smaller number of new jobs for those who take the time and effort to train for the  skills needed.   The complex job of directing that automated equipment will involve computer programming and the host of new machinery will need service people to install, maintain  and keep it running efficiently - and those jobs will be at the higher end of the pay scale.

Many people bewail the ever shrinking job market but there is a certain inevitability about doing things more efficiently.   Back in 1912 when the Titanic was preparing for her maiden voyage, her engines were powered by coal and that coal was brought aboard by stevedores balancing a sack of coal on their shoulders.   This primitive method was deemed a vast improvement in speed when measured against crossing the Atlantic by sail, but in a few short years coal was replaced by oil - and so another improvement cycle ended.

Clever people are constantly finding new ways to do things more efficiently.   The computer is providing artificial intelligence to replicate the human brain and robotics are well on the way to replacing human muscle. It seems inevitable that at some point the integration of robotic brain and muscle will do all the heavy lifting for mankind.

The only question is what will happen to those humans who lack the foresight and mental ability to accept this situation and retrain for the higher paid jobs that this new order will produce ?