In fact, as other long-term trends take hold, many of these working-class roles are poised for a job explosion.
While manufacturing jobs as a whole are expected to stay flat, spending in this industry has boomed to $200 billion each year, tripling in the past five years.
"What characterizes the physical labor jobs that are safe for the next five or 10 years are things that are in an unpredictable physical environment," Kweilin Ellingrud, a McKinsey Global Institute director, told me.
Instead of replacing these jobs, AI will likely benefit specific roles by making it easier to do the most routine parts of the job.
He added: "There are these jobs that are in a middle ground where the physical work may remain but the supervision might be more exposed."
Persons:
plumbers, Philip Levine, there's, Mark Muro, barometers, OpenAI, Ellingrud, Muro, Emil Skandul, Tony Blair
Organizations:
Ford, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Brookings Institution, Accenture, Bureau of Labor Statistics, McKinsey, McKinsey Global Institute, Research, Tony Blair Institute
Locations:
American, America