Australian Top 5 Jobs to Become Extinct

[Guest The Pom Queen]

After reading the article I can understand why they go offshore, look at the Indians wage $6000 pa where as an Australian would be paid $75,000 pa.

 

 

Do you work in IT, retail or accounting? You might want to start looking for a new job.

Australian firm Balance Recruitment says the internet and the process of offshoring will see many jobs become obsolete within 10 years, with travel agents, car manufacturers, retail workers, accountants and IT workers most at risk.

The safest jobs are in industries that rely on face-to-face contact, such as hospitality, trades, government, teaching, said Balance Recruitment managing director Greg Pankhurst.

 

Mr Pankhurst said offshoring posed a major risk because Australia’s economy was largely services-based.

“The majority of all services can be provided remotely at a fraction of the cost,” he said.

An Indian computer programmer with three years experience would be paid about $6000 per annum whilst an Australian doing the same job would receive $75,000, he said.

“It’s an attractive option for many companies, however the impact on the lives of many Australians could be disastrous.”

Mr Pankhurst added that, until recently, only low-skill IT and accounting jobs – such as systems back-up and accounts payable/receivable – were being sent offshore.

“But we have seen an increasing trend for higher skilled jobs,” he said, with more IT programmers and designers and mid-high level financial controllers being sent overseas.

The retail sector is also being hit by a “second phase” of impact from the internet, as niche and high-end suppliers of fashion, sporting goods and electronics move online, Mr Pankhurst said.

Even the mining industry - which has long been held up as the saviour of the economy - is at risk.

“There’s a lot of work being done in terms of trying to automate and use robotics to replace the people that are literally at the coal face,” Mr Pankhurst said.

Mining companies are looking to lessen their massive occupational health and safety burden and reduce the expense of flying workers in and out of remote areas, he said.

Workers in the health and government sectors are among the safest, Mr Pankhurst said.

“For political reasons [governments] are never going to offshore staff,” he said.

“And with an aging population, [aged care] is a high-touch kind of role, it’s not the sort of thing that can be done remotely.”

Mr Pankhurst said workers in flagging industries should be aware of the changes happening in their field and should start to re-skill now if they think their job is under threat.

“And if you’re going to change industries or go back to uni, make sure you’re going into something that has a strong future, don’t go into something that’s dwindling,” he said.

[PositivePixie]

Hard to believe the retail sector will take much of a hit - the internet and shopping online must be at least 10 years behind the UK (from our experiences, a lot more tbh, I'm being kind here), and retail is still alive there (in as much as anything is). Touching, feeling and having a physical view of something won't ever compete with online for certain sectors of the market, no matter how much money can be saved, so methinks there is still a way to go for retail peeps - and for places that don't get mail, online shopping will never be an option, so a community store is the only option

[DR Moving to Oz]

Hard to believe the retail sector will take much of a hit - the internet and shopping online must be at least 10 years behind the UK (from our experiences, a lot more tbh, I'm being kind here), and retail is still alive there (in as much as anything is). Touching, feeling and having a physical view of something won't ever compete with online for certain sectors of the market, no matter how much money can be saved, so methinks there is still a way to go for retail peeps - and for places that don't get mail, online shopping will never be an option, so a community store is the only option

My town in the uk has suffered most of the shops are either empty or charity shops. its only really the big shopping mall's which are still booming

[Rupert]

There does seem to be a lot of it (out-sourcing) about at the moment in Australia. Having said that, I believe that some of those estiamtes are way off, I have seen some of this offshoring in my company and the salaries overseas are more like $30-$40k not $6k. Still a lot cheaper than an Australian wage of course. There is a bit of me that thinks it could be cyclical though and in the future these services are brought back on shore.

[Petals]

Retail has to be hit more here I would have thought as Australia is such a large country and there are so many people who do not live near to centres. Also even in Melbourne I use the web as I do not want to drag myself over to a shop somewhere to find out they have not got what I want when I get there.

 

Our distances are a dream for on line shopping. We have been on line shopping for years now.

 

Also service is anther factor, if there is none, why bother to shop.

[Guest Shell15]

I used to work for fujitsu and our department - all 300+ was closed down due to the contract moving offshore..