Preparing for new jobs
Experts say that jobs of the future in Columbus will be focused on transportation technology and data analytics.
“When you look at what’s happening in the world of big data, artificial intelligence, those aren’t just words; it’s reality,” Fischer said. “The world as we know it is ever-changing.
“Columbus has the opportunity to lead that change,” he said.
The federal Smart Cities grant Columbus won in 2016 sets it up to be the epicenter of transportation technology in the coming decades, with new companies and infrastructure rising around it, Staley said.
Smaller companies and the jobs they bring will help attract more people, he said. Data centers for IBM and Amazon have helped set up the city to attract more jobs in “big-data analytics,” he said.
Michael Stevens, the city's chief innovation officer, said Ginther sees the grant as a catalyst to prepare Columbus as the economy transforms.
"So there's going to be new technology, new industries, new opportunities for jobs and investments for start-ups," Stevens said. "It's not going to land a 5,000-job manufacturing plant," he said. But new technologies likely will be born out of Smart Cities that will help transform the area beyond transportation.
"It's an amazing platform for economic development, and for all citizens of our community historically left behind," Fischer said.
"Smart Cities brings a whole different dimension to the city of the future," he said.
New jobs in transportation and data analytics will require educated workers. At the same time, automation will erase many lowskill jobs. Artificial intelligence even will start to wipe out jobs that require more education.
“There could be technological advancements now we can’t even imagine that may create sectors that are nonexistent today,” said Jason Reece, an Ohio State professor who has long studied disparity.
The economy will become more “niche-based,” with a rising personal services industry, he said. With more kids living in poverty today, officials need to confront how they are preparing them — and their parents, whose jobs might disappear — for the future, he said.
Local officials already should be thinking about how to retrain workers in dying industries, Reece said. That could include short crash courses or longer-term certificate programs.
The education system also will need to respond more to how individuals learn.
“Across the country, there’s a very early growing understanding that the technological shift is going to define workforce needs in the future,” Fischer said. “I think the country needs to be concerned about that.”