World Economic Forum – These jobs are set to disappear fastest in the US – Written by Gus Lubin, Senior Correspondent, Business Insider published in collaboration with Business Insider.

America is going to see some huge employment shifts in the next decade, as in past decades, thanks above all to technology.

The biggest losers? Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, whose ranks are projected to shrink by 149,000 from 2014 to 2024.

We pulled the 12 jobs with the largest total declines in Bureau of Labor Statistics projections (see our past coverage for largest percent declines). Keep scrolling to see who’s losing the future.

12. Computer programmers

They write and test code that allows computer applications and software programs to function properly. Their jobs are at risk primarily because of global outsourcing.

Median annual pay: $80,000

US employment in 2014: 329,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 302,000

Projected decline: 27,000 (8%)

11. Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

They set up or operate metal or plastic molding, casting, or coremaking machines to mold or cast metal or thermoplastic parts or products. Their jobs are at risk as companies switch to computer and robot-controlled machines.

Median annual pay: $29,000

US employment in 2014: 130,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 97,000

Projected decline: 32,000 (25%)

10. Switchboard operators, including answering service

They operate telephone business systems equipment or switchboards to relay incoming, outgoing, and interoffice calls. Their jobs are at risk due to increased automation and online services.

Median annual pay: $27,000

US employment in 2014: 112,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 76,000

Projected decline: 37,000 (33%)

9. Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

They set up or operate machines to saw, cut, shear, notch, bend, or straighten metal or plastic materials. Their jobs are at risk as companies switch to computer and robot-controlled machines.

Median annual pay: $31,000

US employment in 2014: 192,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 153,000

Projected decline: 40,000 (21%)

8. Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

They prepare incoming and outgoing mail for distribution at post offices and mail processing centers. Their jobs are at risk due to automatic mail sorting technology and the switch to online services.

Median annual pay: $57,000

US employment in 2014: 118,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 78,000

Projected decline: 40,000 (34%)

7. Tellers

They are responsible for accurately processing routine transactions at a bank. Their jobs are at risk due to the rise of online banking and mobile apps.

Median annual pay: $26,000

US employment in 2014: 521,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 481,000

Projected decline: 40,000 (8%)

6. Sewing machine operators

They operate or tend sewing machines to join, reinforce, decorate, or perform related sewing operations in the manufacture of garment or nongarment products. Their jobs are at risk due to increased automation and outsourcing.

Median annual pay: $23,000

US employment in 2014: 154,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 112,000

Projected decline: 42,000 (27%)

5. Farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse

They perform numerous tasks related to growing and harvesting grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other crops. Their jobs are at risk as farms consolidate and adopt technology that raises output per farmer.

Median annual pay: $20,000

US employment in 2014: 470,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 427,000

Projected decline: 43,000 (9%)

4. Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

They perform clerical and administrative duties. Their jobs are at risk as technology automates or simplifies much of their work.

Median annual pay: $53,000

US employment in 2014: 777,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 732,000

Projected decline: 45,000 (6%)

3. Postal service mail carriers

They deliver mail to homes and businesses in cities, towns, and rural areas. Their jobs are at risk due to automated sorting technology and the switch to online services.

Median annual pay: $58,000

US employment in 2014: 297,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 219,000

Projected decline: 78,000 (26%)

2. Cooks, fast food

They prepare a limited selection of menu items in fast-food restaurants. Their jobs are at risk due to increased automation.

Median annual pay: $19,000

US employment in 2014: 524,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 444,000

Projected decline: 80,000 (15%)

1. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

They record financial transactions, update statements, and check financial records for accuracy. Their jobs are at risk because of technological changes that automate and otherwise simplify this work.

Median annual pay: $37,000

US employment in 2014: 1,760,000

Projected US employment in 2024: 1,612,000

Projected decline: 149,000 (8%)

 

The World Economic Forum – A Frenchman in Silicon Valley: France needs an innovation revolution – Written by Navi Radjou.

With Emmanuel Macron as president and his party winning a decisive majority in recent parliamentary elections, France’s ailing economy may finally receive a shot in the arm. Investors hope Macron can deliver on his promises to relax stringent labour laws and curb public spending. But the sad fact is even these ideas are not nearly radical enough to help France compete globally and win, in particular, in today’s digital economy.

France’s problems are well known: a heavy tax burden, intransigent unions and an uncontrollable public deficit. These are compounded by a lack of dynamism in its main European trading partners. But more than anything, France has a particular weakness when it comes to innovation ranking a dismal 15th in the 2017 survey of global innovation by the World Intellectual Property Organization, well behind Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the US and the United Kingdom, which top the list.

Large French industrial firms spend heavily on R&D, but entrepreneurs and small businesses struggle to attract the capital to launch and scale new ventures. French engineers excel at producing highly sophisticated and expensive industrial products like nuclear power plants, high-speed trains and fighter jets. This kind of industrial innovation is increasingly outdated, as the source of corporate and national advantage shifts from physical products to digital platforms, meaning the likes of Facebook and Airbnb, which create, find and share knowledge, and connect consumers with goods and services.

As a Frenchman based in Silicon Valley, I have worked with companies in France for the past 25 years. It is frustrating to watch French engineers take years to develop a perfect product, rather than gradually improving it based on customer input, which is often received through digital platforms. I am baffled by the limited collaboration between French companies and universities and startups, when such links run deep in Silicon Valley, and to a lesser degree in rival countries like Britain.

Just as their industrial cousins struggle to compete, French companies focused on premium branded products have failed to grasp the new ways consumers behave. Since the 2007 recession, French consumers have become thriftier. In some ways this has helped a small handful of sharing economy start-ups, like ride-sharing app BlaBlaCar. The vast majority of mainstream French firms are struggling to engage with this turn towards sharing and frugality.

As a tech-savvy young leader, Macron personally understands this new digital world. But awareness isn’t enough. He needs a radical programme of changes, beginning with three important steps.

The sharing economy
Firstly, Macron must encourage French businesses to plug into the sharing economy, which is currently restricted to citizens directly sharing cars and apartments. PwC estimates that Europe’s sharing economy — dominated by consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions will grow from €28 billion today to €570 billion by 2025. France can go much further and pioneer business-to-business (B2B) sharing by building digital platforms that enable large firms and SMEs to become more efficient and innovative by sharing resources, ranging from waste, idle factory equipment and office space, to employees and even intellectual property (IP). B2B sharing could turbocharge the fourth industrial revolution.

There are pioneering models that France can follow. In Denmark’s Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park, for example, several co-located companies exchange material waste, energy and water as an integrated ecosystem. Similarly, Dutch hospitals use FLOOW2, a B2B marketplace, to find and share idle medical equipment, staff and services, thus providing better care to more patients at a lower cost.

To encourage B2B sharing in France, Macron’s government needs to institute a comprehensive new framework that encourages the sharing of assets and personnel, probably including the deregulation of rules covering areas such as legal liability, taxation, IP protection and workers’ rights. If done well, France can shape and dominate the global B2B sharing market, potentially worth trillions of Euros, by creating demand for it and by developing the necessary digital platforms.

Regional innovation
Secondly, Macron needs to decentralize innovation. Paris has some elements of an innovation hub with a supportive mayor, top universities and an impressive new start-up campus, Station F. But other regions that could produce innovative tech clusters — such as Hauts-de-France, a former industrial region in the north that is transitioning to a waste-free, clean-tech-fuelled circular economy and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in the south-west that is leading agricultural tech innovation in Europe — are being left behind for lack of support.

Such regions lack scientists and engineers, as well as innovation links between universities and companies, especially in high-demand areas like the Internet of Things, bioscience and clean-tech. Macron, who is proud of his provincial origins and a big advocate of greater regional autonomy, should set up a regional innovation development fund to help existing “pôles de compétitivité” (competitiveness clusters) become “pôles de compétences” (talent clusters).

Frugal innovation
Finally, Macron must position France as a global leader in frugal innovation, a disruptive way of creating high-quality products that are affordable and eco-friendly. A few French firms have led the way here, including the automaker Renault, which shook up the global car industry in 2004 by launching the $6,000 Dacia Logan and two years ago introduced the €3,500 Kwid in India. The European Commission recently published a landmark report highlighting the huge social value and vast economic potential of frugal innovation for European nations.

Macron could make France a global hub to invest, test and scale low-cost, eco-sound inventions for European and even developing markets. He could do so by asking French engineering and business schools to incorporate frugal innovation into their curriculum. Macron could also set challenges for entrepreneurs with prizes given to those who create disruptive frugal innovation in vital sectors, like food, energy and health. Known as “10x10x Grand Challenges” the winners will be projects that deliver at least 10 times greater value, but use 10 times fewer resources than existing solutions.

Macron is an ingenious political entrepreneur: he used innovative data-driven campaign tactics to win hearts and minds and got elected by a landslide as France’s youngest president. En Marche!, his one-year-old political organization, is still in start-up mode. But having disrupted the French political landscape, President Macron now needs to lead a French innovation revolution as well.

The author
Navi Radjou born 14 August 1970 is a French-American scholar,  he earned his MS degree in information systems from Ecole Centrale de Paris, and also attended the Yale School of Management. He is an innovation and leadership advisor based in Silicon Valley. He is former Vice-President at Forrester Research, a leading US-based technology research and consulting firm. At Forrester, he investigated how globalised innovation – with the rise of India and China as both a source and market for innovations – is driving new market structures and organizational models called « Global Innovation Networks ». During his tenure at Forrester, he advised senior executives around the world on technology-enabled best practices to drive collaborative innovation, global supply chain integration, and proactive customer service. He served as the Executive Director of the Centre for India & Global Business at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, where Jaideep Prabhu was the director.
At Forrester, Radjou published more than a hundred thought-leadership reports on business topics related to innovation and emerging markets. Based on his extensive field research in India he published in 2008 a ten-part report series titled « India: The Innovation Giant (Re)Awakens », which explores the innovative business models pioneered by large corporations and grassroots entrepreneurs in India. Radjou is co-author of Frugal Innovation published worldwide by The Economist in 2015. The book explains the principles, perspectives and techniques behind frugal innovation. He is also co-author of the international best-seller Jugaad Innovation (Jossey-Bass, 2012). described by The Economist as « the most comprehensive book yet to appear on the subject » of frugal innovation.[9] He is co-author of From Smart To Wise, a book on next generation leadership. He is also a regular columnist on Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg Businessweek and The Wall Street Journal, and maintains a blog on HarvardBusinessReview.org.
Navi’s next book, Conscious Society: Reinventing How We Consume, Work, and Live (due in 2018), shows how we can all expand our awareness and tap into our abundant inner-resources—love, ingenuity, wisdom—to co-create inclusive and sustainable communities. In doing so, we can consciously steer human evolution to a better future.
Radjou has had wide exposure in national and international media, including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, Financial Times, Le Monde, and Nikkei Shimbun. He is ranked as one of the 50 most influential persons shaping innovation in France.
In 2013, he received the Thinkers50 Innovation Award— given to a management thinker who is re-shaping the way we think about and practice innovation. In addition, his book Jugaad Innovation was shortlisted for the 2013 Thinkers50 CK Prahalad Breakthrough Idea Award.
Named by BusinessWeek as an « expert in corporate innovation, » he was also honoured by the Financial Times, which called his co-authored work on National Innovation Networks – the first-ever ranking of countries by their collaborative aptitude to integrate innovation capabilities across multiple regions – as « ambitious » and « sophisticated ». His latest research on « polycentric innovation » – a new approach that multinationals can use to integrate globally distributed R&D and innovation capabilities – has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Global Intelligence for the CIO, and Le Monde. Similarly, his concept of « indovation » — the unique process by which innovations are developed in India to serve a large number of people sustainably — has been featured in The Financial Times and in several conferences organised by Asia Society.

Have you read?
– After Macron’s victory, what next for France and Europe?
– Is France in deflation?
– The UN has ranked nations for innovation – how does yours do?