Episode 243: Why the End of Jobs is Near with Jeff Wald (@JeffreyWald) 

Jeff Wald is the Co-Founder and President of WorkMarket, an enterprise software platform that enables companies to efficiently and compliantly organize, manage, and pay freelancers (purchased by ADP). Jeff has founded several other technology companies including Spinback (eventually sold to Salesforce). He is an active angel investor and startup advisor, as well as serving on numerous public and private Boards of Directors. His latest book, The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations, came out in June.

Is the Job Apocalypse Upon Us? 

With Jeff’s book title about predicting the end of jobs, I wanted to ask him what it was really all about. Obviously, Jeff’s book was written pre-COVID, but the data tells the same story that work is moving more towards more flexible work environments. What we need from our jobs or clients is changing as contractors or freelancers. Jeff says the world is shifting to a more fluid market where freelancers and contractors like me are more common and HR needs to take responsibility for managing the experience of our freelance and contract workforce.

Jeff’s book looks at the history of work and really dives into data and the trends. Jeff share that the only time labor statistics move very slow so this end of jobs trend and work changes are happening at a very slow and predictable pace. That is unless of course you experience a mass economic dislocation like we are now. He says the last time we saw this kind of economic slowdown was the Great Depression. He says the legislation passed after the Great Depression, specifically FLSA, and the changes to the creation of Social Security and and a host of other social welfare systems had a big impact on what we are experiencing now in terms of creating stead slow growth or decline. This is why labor statistics don’t move which is why he’s confident what he’s predicting now...

Source: Workology