Technological unemployment.

[NOVOCAINE]

The people who retrain are more likely to be people who are already doing something very similar. It'll be a small adjustment to their career path, where they decide to go in a slightly different direction than they were headed due to the areas where there are job openings. When millions of people do that over a decade, the economy shifts. The lowest level work (stocker, cashier, janitor) is a transient job anyway, not something that you spend your entire life doing (and god help you if you did). So those people are looking for openings to adjust their careers anyway. In a compressed example though:

- Netflix puts Blockbuster cashier out of work
- Netflix creates demand for streaming content
- Writer leaves CBS for a job writing for a new Netflix original series
- Writer leaves his job on a low circulation TV show to work at CBS
- Waiter who is an aspiring screenwriter lands the job on the low circulation TV show, flips off his boss.
- Grocery store cashier takes a job as a waiter to get some of that tip money.
- Old blockbuster cashier takes a job as a grocery store cashier.

We've got an episode, guys!

Most people who'll attempt to move sideways to a similar cashier or stocker job are most likely either students, or elderly and working as part time. In the case of the former these lower level positions getting abolished all over becomes a bit of an issue. As all of a sudden these new 'lower' level jobs demand you have at least a certain level of experience. Which then begs the question, 'where do you start'? I'm experiencing this exact problem at the moment.

 

[Danoff]

We've got an episode, guys!

Most people who'll attempt to move sideways to a similar cashier or stocker job are most likely either students, or elderly and working as part time. In the case of the former these lower level positions getting abolished all over becomes a bit of an issue. As all of a sudden these new 'lower' level jobs demand you have at least a certain level of experience. Which then begs the question, 'where do you start'? I'm experiencing this exact problem at the moment.

That's less of a technological unemployment problem and more of an employee overhead problem. Especially in the US, employers have to comply with a sea of regulations and pay all sorts of benefits and taxes. It's also somewhat difficult to fire people, so many employers are shy about hiring. Minimum wage, mandatory breaks, health insurance, social security, OSHA regulations, and you have to worry about frivolous lawsuits under disability compensations. Even interviewing a position carries risk of lawsuits over discriminatory hiring or interviews.

Every bit of burden that we place on the employer is a direct incentive to stop employing. Here in the US employers are looking into automation for things like fast food and grocery stores, not because they're cheap, but because the price of employees continues to climb quickly. If you're McDonalds and you're staring down the barrel of a $15 minimum wage, you start investing heavily in alternatives.