ChatGPT threat makes health-care jobs more promising than finance, tech

Parents of today’s kindergartners should consider getting them to consider a career in the medical field.

These are the findings of the latest MLIV Pulse survey with 678 respondents. Nearly 40% said children currently in elementary school would be better off with a job in health care if they want to avoid being displaced by artificial intelligence. Jobs in medical fields often involve a lot of human-to-human interaction, which now seems hard to replace with generative AI programs like ChatGPT.

Demographic trends may also support the idea that becoming a doctor or nurse would be a wise choice for the youngest generations: Economists forecast huge demand for health care workers as populations age in the US and around the world.

Investors have a different recommendation for those graduating from high school. Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. Despite the recent layoffs, those students would be best off pursuing a career in tech. Tech savvy is considered more important than ever in a world dominated by digital platforms, even as some Worry that AI could pose a threat to some entry-level jobs.

“The highest paying jobs were clearly in the finance sector for two or three decades, and now technology is really competitive with it — they’re kind of neck and neck,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at a human-resources consulting firm. ” Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc. Even with the rise of AI, he expects tech and finance to remain among the most lucrative careers for the next 20 or 30 years. He said, ‘I don’t see it going away.

Nearly 52% of 556 professional investors said technology is the way to go for high school students. 48% of 122 retail investors voted for the technology.

Recent recruitment trends support the results. While the current recession has hit both Big Tech and Silicon Valley startups hard, recruiters in traditional industries — from automakers to the federal government — have raced to lock up tech talent and new grabs. These days, as the saying goes, every company is a technology company.

Part of the perception that the grass is greener in Silicon Valley may also be due to the way that technology has changed the inner workings of Wall Street. “There are a lot of people who have brilliant financial brains, and yet they can’t come up with and actually implement a trading strategy without relying on serious programmers because it has surpassed humans in some ways.” Challenger said. “I can see why they feel threatened by that.”

Regarding the potential impact of AI on Wall Street, only 12% said finance would be the best career choice for today’s kindergartners. While a previous MLIV Pulse survey found that most finance professionals were confident that AI would not replace them in the next three years, that belief appears to be faltering over a longer time horizon.

A recent Goldman Sachs Group Inc. report estimated that AI automation could soon affect around 300 million full-time jobs worldwide.

Significant layoffs as Credit Suisse Group AG was absorbed by UBS Group AG, combined with announcements of job cuts from Citigroup Inc, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs made respondents apathetic about careers in finance. The KBW Bank Index is down nearly 18% year-to-date, compared to more than 7% for the S&P 500. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is up nearly 20%.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. began reporting first-quarter bank earnings on Friday as a windfall benefit from higher interest rates hitting smaller lenders last month. But even large lenders signaled caution, including on the recruitment front. While JP Morgan has hired more people, the bank plans to keep the headcount stable during the rest of the year and has expressed caution regarding more buybacks.

Most survey respondents said that a bachelor’s degree is still worthwhile, despite the considerable investment of time and money. Still, some suggest that going to trade school to become a carpenter, electrician or plumber, jobs that can’t be easily outsourced or automated, might be a worthwhile way forward.