Amid the rapid reorganization of white-collar (office) jobs due to the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), there is a so-called “blue-collar (field) billionaire” phenomenon in which wages of manual workers are soaring, mainly in the United States. As AI begins to replace documents, analysis, accounting and office work, the value of occupations that require human hands and on-site judgment is being shed new light. Analysts say that blue-collar occupations such as plumbers, electricians, and construction engineers, which were previously avoided, are emerging as high-income occupations, and that the joys and sorrows of occupations are being divided based on the “possibility of replacing AI.” Recently, Japan’s Asahi TV focused on structural changes in blue-collar occupations in the United States. Asahi TV analyzed that unlike office jobs that can be replaced by AI, technical jobs that require skilled hand skills and immediate field judgment have a relatively slow speed of automation. As a result, the job is being reorganized into a high-income group.
The person introduced by Asahi TV as a representative example is Mai, who worked as a corporate accountant in the United States and changed to a plumber. After graduating from the prestigious UC Berkeley, he was in charge of accounting at a company, but decided to leave the company after a conflict with his boss and began working as a plumber with no experience at all at the recommendation of an acquaintance. He, who had never touched a screw, said he suffered severe physical pain in the early months, but now he is very satisfied with his job. His hourly wage was about 4,000 yen when he worked as an accountant, but his hourly wage nearly tripled to 12,000 yen after moving to a plumber. He said that although the physical burden was great, working hours were reduced, and satisfaction with making something by hand increased. “AI can replace thoughts, but it cannot even replace the role of working directly in the field,” Mai said. “The era of physical labor is coming again.” “It is highly likely that a similar situation to the United States will appear in Japan within a few years,” said Yu Kashimura, a senior researcher at the Cheil Life Economic Research Institute. “The wages of white-collar workers could stagnate or face downward pressure.” “AI’s intelligence has already exceeded the average human being,” he said. “The job of handling data and documents in front of computers will be most affected.” However, he added that as Japan has strict regulations on the dismissal of regular workers, there is a high possibility that changes will occur in the form of personnel transfer and job relocation rather than large-scale dismissal like in the United States.
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
