Wednesday, February 12, 2025 | Sha'ban 12, 1446 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Boom and bust, and the tech job market

If the technological race escalates further, not only would US-China technical collaboration and global climate change surely suffer, but a consequent imbalance in investment would be catastrophic for whoever comes second
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The education sector is accelerating, at breakneck pace, its focus on Mathematics, Science and Technology in catering to the research and development needs of future societies. Are we right to focus in just one direction, and perhaps more importantly... what becomes of those left behind?


Initially, I guess we must first accept that the current US-China trade relationship and technical competition creates a new and different dynamic. With each being the other’s most significant trading partner, it is perhaps understandable that their competitive appetites are mitigated by their understanding, if you like their ‘consideration’ for each other’s technical sensitivities. In the same way that divorcing couples step lightly, or ‘dance’ around their differences between them, their faults, fragilities and failings until the final reckoning, there is a faux level of respect between the philosophical and fiscal foes.


This mutual ‘respect’ for each other has led to a slowing down in the torrent of new technologies, not because there is less to discover, but because neither powerhouse can afford the dramatic consequences of charging too far ahead of the other. Can you imagine if either was to embarrass the other with a mind-boggling, extraordinary discovery that would change the world?


American share market trader and analyst Jackson Barkstrom is adamant that if their technological race escalates further, not only would US-China technical collaboration and global climate change surely suffer, but a consequent imbalance in investment would be catastrophic for whoever comes second. Greed you see, will always win in those mogul’s eyes.


If it did happen, and because neither of them wants to lose the race, it almost certainly won’t, the global financial, commercial, marketing and manufacturing effects could reach far and wide, with production being severely cut back in non-essential industries. And here is the bite... jobs would suffer. Job opportunities would suffer, and all of those further and higher education ‘techie’ whiz-kids would have nowhere to go, and very few transferrable skills with which to go prospecting.


Emma Darcy is a former Digital Innovator of the Year (2021) who recognises that there is, “no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to education,” as all cultures, schools and students are different. Their futures look different, their passions are clearly different, they are philosophically, physically and psychologically different, yet all have similar physiological, security, love and belonging needs.


While every man and his dog are pushing the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) barrow, what will all the graduate ‘techies’ do if their sector collapses due to the collapse of their sector? After all, it has happened before, hasn’t it? Remember that’s what has happened to the industrial revolution of the 18th and into the 19th century; the coal-mining industry during Margaret Thatcher’s reign; the oil shocks and Opec cuts of 2009 and 2015; and the ‘too big to fail’ crash of 2008.


If I was cynical, I might say that we never learn, when actually, we do. But those who have the wherewithal to make something out of it, don’t mind a bit of chaos. After all, it’s always the poor, underpaid manual workers who lose their jobs, while the ‘fat cats’ just got richer because when the coal mines closed they had been running on subsidies anyway, so the mine owners had already moved away towards alternative investments.


Consequently, Silicon Valley, the iconic home of I-tech, appears to have refocused significantly and is reducing the number of people in the sector, with the Wall Street Journal saying, “Tech jobs have dried up, and aren’t coming back,” in a September bombshell. The doom and gloom of that headline is spreading because layoffs are undoubtedly occurring, and that’s scary.


Why? Because much of the world is adapting its entire education sector to meet an industry demand that is already diminishing. ‘The ‘boom and bust’ phenomenon is a real thing, and as AI, automation, efficiency, and of course increased profitability overpower innovation, the outlook for millions of global graduates looks challenging, to say the least.


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