Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2012, and its figure of about 2,000 job cuts out of Correos’ 63,000 employees, and its predictions about which trades would disappear in the coming years, should be read as of that date.
One of the policies of Spain’s Ministry of Education is to match educational opportunities to the needs of the different sectors involved in placing new graduates from vocational training programmes and universities.
But the world moves so fast that technology sometimes outpaces human progress, and, with surprise and some sadness, traditional trades are seeing entire generations of workers come to the end of the line in a profession that has fed whole families.
If you’re thinking about choosing a trade, bear in mind that the ones listed below are going to disappear in the coming years.
Postal service
Email, cheaper phone rates and text messages have all helped letters and personal correspondence disappear. Sadly, these days only bills arrive. Courier companies get parcels delivered extremely quickly. All of this is forcing Correos (Spain’s state postal service) to shed around 2,000 of its 63,000 employees. These are the postal technicians leaving their jobs for other options.
Draughtsmen
The Bologna Process (the reform of European university degrees) and the construction crisis are the two factors that have killed off this trade. Plans and industrial or architectural sketches are now drawn up by people with higher qualifications: building engineers or architects. Draughtsmen have handed their talent over to be absorbed into related trades that followed on from theirs.
Graphic arts
Paper is on its way out. Books are becoming ebooks, newspapers are going digital, and brochures and catalogues are moving to websites. Faster photocopiers, higher-quality and quicker printers, and software for designing documents easily and nimbly: every day these factors cause the graphic arts trades to gradually disappear.
Offset operators and graphic designers are no longer needed. They are being replaced by other technological tools that are cheaper and faster, though they bring less experience.
The United States has announced that 20% of people working in this sector will disappear over the next five years.
Ticket sellers
When you went to the cinema or the theatre, the ticket seller would recommend the best seats and the best films to see. But payment methods are advancing at an unexpected pace. A simple phone call books your tickets. You can also do it online: just choose and pay by credit or debit card.
The metro no longer has ticket sellers. Motorways are becoming more automated every day, and self-checkouts are spreading in supermarkets. Banks have cash machines, and when it comes to shopping, there’s the web and the “shopping cart” straight from the service provider.
Old trades
Like the shepherd, who took the sheep out to graze so they would give more milk and better lambs. As an effect of extensive livestock farming, this figure is disappearing from the fields of Castile.
Pattern makers, who made the patterns for suits and dresses. Then the computer came along, the right software was developed, and the people who, after years in the trade, drew up the patterns from which the cutting machine made the clothes of so many Spaniards disappeared.
At the door of public buildings, schools and some companies, the caretaker or porter was that veteran who handled a bit of this and a bit of that and could turn his hand to anything. Now those duties have been shared out among the rest of the staff, and once these workers retire their post is eliminated and their chair and desk are left empty.
Further reading
Featured image: Phillip Pessar, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
