The worstpaying jobs have best job security

The job title “Wall Street trader” once evoked sleek suits and martini-soaked lunches — a gateway to prosperity at a relatively young age. But earlier this year, Marty Chavez, the chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs, revealed that some of the investment bank’s well-paid humans were being replaced by unpaid robots.

Over the last 17 years, the number of stock traders at the firm has shrunk from 600 to two, he told a Harvard computer science symposium in January.

“We are rapidly transforming the business model,” he told the crowd, according to a video of the event.

Chavez’s talk offers a cautionary tale to the next generation of job seekers: As technology advances, a fat paycheck doesn’t necessarily guarantee job security.

Researchers at the Hamilton Project found students who studied finance, engineering and computer science tend to make the most money after graduation, while thosewho majored in counseling, socialwork and early childhood education saw the lowest wages – but in fields computers aren’t likely to dominate.

“The hardest activities to automate with the technologies available today are those that involve managing and developing people,” noted the authors of a recentmckinsey study ,

Robots can’t feed toddlers or break up disputes among cranky 4-year-olds. Their grip isn’t gentle enough to lift a crying child. Preschool teachers, who earn an average of $35,000 annually, can’t be replaced by the machines of today or the near future.

“A lot of child care has to do with taking care of physical and emotional needs, like changing diapers or providing food,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

Robots also can’t feel empathy, the special ingredient that helps us connect with other people. Like social workers, who make an average of $43,000 per year, they can ask about your childhood – but they can’t then help youwork through issues with your mom.

“There are robots that can mimic empathy,” said David Deming, a Harvard professor who studies the market of social skills. “They can read human faces and try to pick up on responses. But they’re just pretending. They don’t really understand you.”