Over the next 10 years, America's greatest challenge is going to be creating enough jobs, according to Martin Ford, author of "The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future." The reason for this grim prospect: Information technology.

While some analysts recently have suggested that there may be an employee shortage ahead, Ford says that they fail to take into account a likely acceleration in IT and offshoring. If Moore's Law prevails for the next 10 years, computing power will rise by a factor of about 32. Job automation, which has already had a considerable effect on manufacturing and service sector jobs, is likely to grow. In 10 years, automation will move beyond these sectors into "knowledge worker" jobs, according to Ford.

"The six-figure knowledge workers who now inhabit oceans of corporate cubicles will be heavily threatened by software automation and specialized artificial intelligence applications that can perform many of the routine tasks and analyses that occupy their days," he predicts.

Ford's take on the near future, which is presented as part of the Forbes' series, "Your Life in 2020," is depressing, for sure. It may be particularly unsettling, however, for those who are pressured every day to apply IT to reduce business costs.

"The economy of 2020 may well be characterized by substantial, broad-based and ever increasing structural unemployment, as well as by stagnant or plunging consumer spending and confidence," Ford warns.

For more:
- read Martin Ford's article at Forbes

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