Jobs that no longer exist in 2010
Posted on by Forest in General, Opinion
I recently talked about what the world might look like in 2050 and it was pointed out by Kevin (from Invest it Wisely) how much the world really has changed in the past 40 years already. When you look at it that way there are so many jobs that no longer exist in 2010.
So let’s take a look at just a few of them (in the USA and UK context).
Fridge Ice Delivery Men
Until the 1930′s when fron gas refrigerators became affordable and safe for home use if you had a refrigerator in your home then it had to be cooled with real ice. No fancy self producing cooling tubes! This required the storing of ice from the winter in large straw covered piles hidden away in a cool place. Of course you can’t store your own ice so a person used to deliver it to your home when you needed it. This is likely one of the only jobs I can think of that is dead the world over although there are of course still people who deliver ice but it’s likely fancy cubes and things to compliment party drinks!
Rag and Bone Men
This happened in the USA but the term Rag and Bone was very British. Up until the 60′s junk collectors used to ride the streets on a horse and cart shouting some variation of rag and bone that often merged into a whole new sound. Like rahbo, rahbo or similar. They would collect old rags to be transformed into paper or other fabric and bones for creating glue as well as any other useful scrap. The wide spread use of cards pushed this job to extinction although junk yards and junk men do still exist today. Here in Egypt the rag and bone man is still common. They shout a weird phrase that took me months to translate sounding like Yip Yep. Turns out they are say Bickya, which is short for Roba Bickya roughly meaning useful rubbish!
Typewriter Engineer
This is an obvious one that has kind of been replaced with computer engineer / repair person. However the actual need to fix typewriters is just not needed anymore and I bet a few specialists still exist with work only from hobby collectors. The switch to computerised typewriters must have been devestating for the whole typewriter repair and supply industry.
LostLabor.com has some excellent images and information on a more industrious scale related to jobs that have seriously decline or no longer exist in our modern times. Very informative!
What we can learn from this?
The biggest lesson for us from looking at lost jobs is that what are seemingly normal jobs may well be gone in years to come. It pays to be ever changing, diverse and willing to adapt. Many auto makers have moved out of country and a lot of people that have only ever made cars are suddenly stuck. The car industry is interesting to look at from other angles too. Old style mechanics are being left behind if they refuse to learn the new computer tech related to modern engines.
Industry as a whole is shifting and the future will definitely be bringing more automation to such areas. We have self driving trains already, factories that almost need no human hands and the service industry is under heavy fire from self serving style computerised systems.
Just keep on your toes!
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40 Responses to “Jobs that no longer exist in 2010”
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September 27, 2010
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Gabriele d'Annunzio
23. Sep, 2010
” Roba Bickya ” sounds a lot like the Italian phrase “roba vecchia,” which does not mean “useful rubbish” but rather “old clothes.” I imagine the strong European presence in Egypt’s cities prior to Nasser, or even the use of an Italian-based pidgin known as Lingua Franca in the medieval Mediterranean, may account for this.
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
That’s interesting I assumed Roba Bikya was Egyptian but will have to investigate now. There is a strong influence here. For example people say Ello when they answer the phone even if they speak no English.
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Dave S
23. Sep, 2010
Television Repairman. I remember that man on his knees, behind our mammoth TV with a case of tubes and bulbs grunting and straining just so we could watch our small ( but in a very large cabinet) black and white TV!
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Dave, good point I have not had a TV repaired my whole adult life but I remember it as a kid.
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rick mItchell
23. Sep, 2010
Darkroom technicians are quickly becoming as useful as typewriter engineers. Still the darkroom makes for a nice hobby, the magic of photography is not to be found on the computer.
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Forest
23. Sep, 2010
That’s a good point. My first full time job was as a mac operator at a lab that produced giant pictures so it was a mix of technologies. However the machine still needed to process the prints in a darkroom. Slowly inkjet printers took over and got better and now that tech is very rare.
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Dale Allison
23. Sep, 2010
One job that is gone is a honest politian. One that wants to help the people that voted in him to office. Todays politians are looking for a job to keep until they retire. They don’t care about voters just contributors.
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Ha ha Dale, did they really ever exist?
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Invest It Wisely
23. Sep, 2010
So far I’m not impressed with the self-checkout lanes at the grocery store, but technology is getting there!
Thanks for the mention, too!
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Kevin, yeah it’s going to take a while to replace real people in the check outs.
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gmccain
23. Sep, 2010
Rag and Bone sounds an awful lot to me like vagabond!
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey G McCain, it did have a vagabond kind of rap to it. Not exactly seen as a job for the rich but a great service, recycling has always happened in some form and we maybe even used to be better at it.
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egghead
23. Sep, 2010
The receptionist is something that is slowly fading away, I go t more and more businesses, where there is only a phone with a directory of phone numbers next to it in a cold sterile lobby.
Even the local Jack in the Box has a kiosk where you can order food instead of ordering it from a real person. Automation will be taking over very basic service jobs.
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Egghead, yes I am seeing a lot of this too. It’s actually quite sad to be losing the face to a lot of businesses…. People like chatting with the secretary / server / teller and it gives a personal touch… I will miss it.
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Jett Wett
23. Sep, 2010
Another job that has all but disappeared is the Conservative Teacher. The liberal teachers of today are more like glorified babysitters! I work for a small company that hires a lot of young people fresh out of school. It’s appalling to see how badly prepared, or completely unprepared they are to enter the work market! When I started this position in 1966, (fresh out of high school!) the students were more prepared, and we would keep them for about a year before finding them better jobs elsewhere. Today, it is rare to have someone fresh out of high school last more than a month or two, with the average being about three days to three weeks. I quit looking for move up jobs over five years ago. We have started to replace many of the students with older retired, or semi-retired people. This seems to be the way to go, to get reliable employees. We encourage the older people to teach the younger students the good work ethics they failed to learn in school.
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Jett, I went to school in UK and whilst I would not call our teachers at the time (finished 12 years ago) conservative we still was taught a strong work ethic and have a good solid educational backbone…. So I have never had an issue working within multi-aged companies…. However I do hear it complained of today’s youth!
I do wonder though if the older people 40 years ago complained about the new young high school kids and how ill prepared they was. It’s hard for a young kid to want to focus on work.
Another aspect could be not the teachers but the will to learn from society as a whole. The kids just may not want it these days and that is sad but hopefully it will eventually turn around.
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Jett Wett
27. Sep, 2010
Hi Forest, Thanks for the reply,
At least work ethic is taught in the UK!
You are correct that society in gereral doesn’t want to be educated (unless all they have to do is sit in front of a TV and not have to remember what they’ve watched)
I went to school to become a teacher. When I started my internship, I found that the students only wanted to be entertained, not taught. They refuse to put any effort into their studies, and it shows. The liberal teachers allow late work to be turned in for partial credit. ( Is that a good ethic to teach our future employees?) Late assignments are OK? I was so disappointed, that I never went into teaching in public schools.
To answer your question. Yes there is a difference between today’s youth, and the youth of 40 years ago. 40 years ago, 95% of our students completed our program and were sucessfully placed in the work market. Today, 95% drop out within three weeks, even after we have made the program easier, and easier. Only about 5% make it! The youth of 40 years ago, UNDERSTOOD that it was up to them to make it in life. Today’s student thinks someone else is responsible for them and their decisions.
I predict that within 2 to 5 years, our educational employment program will have to be added to the list of jobs that no longer exist! Shame.
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Forest
28. Sep, 2010
I think that’s why USA seriously has to worry about China and India right now….. Those kids are hungry to learn!
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Linda
23. Sep, 2010
I don’t use the self-checkout lanes at the grocery store. Not because of poor technology, but because it puts people out of work. There are enough problems with job availability, and it is really not more efficient for an individual to self check out. It is only better for the stores’ bottom line, but the customer will never see that savings.
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Linda,
I know this is a weird thing to say but we actually pay too little for food and I agree the self check out takes away another job in some ways. Sadly though the cheap food prices come from large supermarket chains bullying farmers into giving prices that leave the farmers poor as anything….. The corps are simply only profit driven.
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Invest It Wisely
26. Sep, 2010
+1: Don’t forget about subsidies that favor rich agro-corps over small farmers and poor farmers.
+2: Don’t forget about the worst patents in existence: Patents on life. The fact that some people in power support this shows their true colours.
One day I want to have a mini-farm in my own garden, but I’ll have to make sure I’m not living in an area where I could get fined $5000 or more for doing so. I hope that guy can get his money back.
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Forest
28. Sep, 2010
The law has changed now for him to be able to continue growing, for some reason they are just not dropping the old fines…. I really think public and media pressure will make them drop the fines though, or at least restore it to the original fine which was much much less.
It really is one of the more stupid stories I have heard of exercising a local restriction, I am sure this law was in place for some other reason and it’s been bent for this case.
Yes the subsidies are doing more than just helping agro-corps they are also encouraging farmers to produce millions of tons more corn than needed and it’s now finding ways to be re-used for everything. That land could be used for healthier crops without those subsidies…. I do think the intention was good but the corps managed to find a use for them and the govs have not been quick enough to correct the laws probably because of back hands and campaign support from the perpetrators…. The patent on life is a tragedy….. Sadly though I believe that is a matter of law not government as such.
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Don V
23. Sep, 2010
I am surprised that no one mentioned the milkman. When I was very young, the milkman delivered milk (in glass bottles) to our door very early in the morning, I think it was twice a week. One could also get cheese, sour cream, and basically any milk-based product as well. Very convenient, but now a quaint reminder of a time long gone.
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Don, I was going to add milkman to the article but I remembered that I still know people that get milk delivered and now they even deliver a few groceries and magazines too. The difference now is that it’s kind of a more luxury service.
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Kit
23. Sep, 2010
I recall milk being delivered to the box by our back door in the 50′s. Now those boxes sell for $$$ in antique stores.
Mail used to be delivered twice a day.
I read gas meters when they were all in basements. Then they were moved outside and now they are computerized. No more meter readers going door to door.
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Kit,
I forgot mail used to be twice a day in UK too!
I currently live in Cairo and we still have manual gas and elect meter checks
.
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galvis
23. Sep, 2010
Hey actually sorry but the first job that you claim is “dead the world over”, does in fact still exist… I recently just came back from south east asia and there is actually a man who has a massive cube of ice that he cuts pieces off with a saw for people. Did you know that “the world over” is not in fact as rich or well off as america? So no, not everyone in the world has a frigde.
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Galvis, hey, hey no need to be like that with me!!!
Ok I made a small error there and didn’t fully explain myself. That ice you saw in Asia came from a freezer originally. The traditional way to store ice was by collecting it naturally during the winter. As far as I know no one does that anymore. Hot countries just simply never had Ice until the freezer became available and although some individual homes don’t have fridges their ice does come from a freezer.
I actually live in Cairo, Egypt. Not far from me 5million people live in a cemetery just to name some of the things that go on here…… I am pretty aware of what poverty is like and I take time to immerse myself in this world, chat with the people and help out a few here and there when I can.
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Forest
23. Sep, 2010
Type your comment here…
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Kay Lynn
25. Sep, 2010
I was going to say milkman but Don beat me to it. You don’t see jobs for telephone operators much (if at all).
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Forest
26. Sep, 2010
Hey Kay Lynn, I guess the operator switch board is likely all computer run these days too… Not sure though!
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Everyday Tips
26. Sep, 2010
I feel like computer repair man is useless because every time I take a laptop/PC in for repair, the Geek Squad guy just says ‘Uhhh, guess you should just get a new one and stuff’ (Use Butthead voice for that sentence.
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Forest
28. Sep, 2010
Ha ha, good point…. They are often salesmen not technicians at that desk I feel like.
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Mrs. Accountability
04. Oct, 2010
How about accounting done with the old fashioned ledgers? My boss still keeps the books for our company with the big heavy huge old ledgers. It is getting harder and harder to find the replacement paper for the heavy binders and they are crazy expensive! Like $100 for 100 sheets for most of the ledgers. We are running her books beside my electronic ones and eventually hope to leave the old fashioned ones in the dust. It is also difficult and time consuming for our auditors to do our yearly audit because the younger people have never even seen manual accounting and don’t know how to use it. Our auditor actually uses our company as a learning tool for their younger employees to have a chance to see and work with manual accounting.
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Forest
05. Oct, 2010
Hey Mrs Accountability, sounds like a lot for work for him and everyone else! It will die off 100% soon I am sure and will be reserved for history lessons on business and it’s past workings!
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Shona
06. Oct, 2010
Something else that seems to have died in many places is genuine customer service. In so many shops these days, the staff are only there because they have to be there in order to collect a paycheck (I also understand their attitude in many cases, because a lot of them are extremely poorly paid/compensated).
If companies started value their employees, right down to their cashiers/drivers/checkers/warehouse staff, I think that customer service would start to make a comeback again – in a positive way.
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Forest
07. Oct, 2010
Ha ha, Shona you are right the better a company treats it’s employee’s the better service people will want to give.
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Mrs. Reason
15. Apr, 2011
Hey what about Bookeeping the old fashion way, I remember along with the milk man came the Egg Lady she would deliver fresh eggs. What about the Butcher and the local Meat Store in the neigborhood. I only see the Butcher in Sam’s Club or the Large IGA stores or the special stores in places. Just my thoughts. Some comments about jobs were really funny because I did not know that they were on the planet. I can say that I still know Fred Sanford types in the world because there is still money to be made for some. May We could put together a show on TV about jobs that were and are not here now and them seek to find them in other part of the world. It world be entertaining to know about them…some older people remember the man who would come to collect the waste for the Outhouse….imagine that…but no different from the company that collects the waste off the farm and takes it to the fertilizer plant….we could go on and on…..keep thinking….
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Forest
18. Apr, 2011
Hey Mrs. Reason, that would be a fun show! Thanks for the comment
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