Computers do amazing things but could they take over your job?

Rapid advances in technology are doing amazing things, but it could also put you out of work? A study shows that nearly 50 percent of jobs today’s jobs are at “high-risk” for a robot takeover.

Some people are trying to stay ahead of the game, quitting their jobs and learning robotics. A year into his robotics program, Phillip Cable, is a master of the machine. But it wasn’t always that way.

“I perused the health care field, X-ray technician it was just a bad market when I graduated,” he said.

The 32-year-old stepped away from a job flooded with applicants, and wanted to get in front of something a bit more cutting edge. So he joined the Robotics and Automation program at Madison College. He now feels like he has more job security than most people his age.

“You can put a tool on the end of a machine and produce pretty much anything that humans had done in the past,” Cable said.

The move has put cable in a good position. Peter Dettmer the head of robotics at Madison College said technology always influences the job market.

“We couldn’t imagine a hundred years ago that we’d all be driving cars or that we’d have little computers in our pockets that we could browse the Internet with,” Dettmer said.

However, this time around the rapid growth of technology is making the job market change much faster.

“It’s an exciting time to be living, in these days, to be a part of that but you have to be adaptable.”

According to a study out of Oxford University, assembly line workers, field technicians, telemarketers are nearly 100 percent likely to be replaced by machines. Insurance and tax jobs also ranked high on the list.

Dettmer recommends people who are starting their careers or want to make a shift consider robotics. Because as robotics become more dominant more people will be needed to manage them.

“It’s being able to work with them, to reprogram them, to re-purpose them,” he said.

Cable said a big perk of working with computers is fewer co-workers.

“People are a lot more difficult than machines, but these can be difficult also,” he said.

Jobs that require a human touch, like doctors, social workers and first responders are considered the least likely to become automated.
One major upside to the change is safety. The dangerous jobs humans once had to do are now being done by gadgets.

Click here to find out if your job is automated. http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/05/21/408234543/will-your-job-be-done-by-a-machine