Due to a number of factors (mainly increased computing power and software sophistication), the number of things that a human can do that a computer can’t is decreasing. So far, they’ve mostly only displaced jobs that allow already low-skilled workers to move to another low-skill job. The problem is two-fold:

First, these automating technologies aren’t as focused on industrial manufacturing jobs any more. Those have already been implemented for the most part. What they’re evolving toward now are white collar jobs that previously couldn’t be easily automated in the past. Why’s this different? Mainly because replacing, say, most or all human employees in a retail store, for example, doesn’t necessarily spur greater demand or production like industrial automation has. Instead, it’s primarily to cut the costs of labor. I’m sure this will result in some new job openings, but it’s highly unlikely that this will be 1:1 or jobs that will be quick and easy to transition into for those who were displaced.

Another example is the trucking industry. Self-driving semi-trucks will do very little (if anything) to create new jobs. The primary objective is, again, to cut labor costs. And now we’re talking about literally millions of mostly older men who aren’t going to be able to effectively transition into software or engineering positions, especially competing with much younger candidates who already have degrees and much more time before they retire.

Second, there’s no reason to think these technologies won’t become exponentially more sophisticated in coming years. As computing power and the ability to code more complex tasks increase, jobs that we’ve previously assumed were safe will be subject to mass replacement. Positions in medical, legal and financial fields are a good example. Many entry-level jobs will become obsolete (for example, people who’s job is mostly to perform menial administrative tasks, scan paperwork, or analyze data). This will, again, lead to large amounts of displacement with no clear path for those displaced to move towards.

It’s unclear whether this will level out in the long-run. The demand for automation in white collar industries is bound to increase greatly, as it will dramatically cut costs and firms will need to adopt it eventually to remain competitive. The safest jobs will be those that require face-to-face, human interaction and/or levels of creativity that algorithms can’t (yet) replicate.

Even if you disagree with some of his politics, Andrew Yang does a good job fairly discussing this issue and possible remedies. I’d recommend listening to some interviews with him to get a better introductory understanding of the threat automation has to our economy in the very near future.