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We have to stop calling some jobs ‘low-skilled’

Freeing ourselves of these labels might help young people to think more creatively about the future.

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ST20260122_202658000654/pixgeneric/Shintaro Tay/ Generic picture of office workers crossing Chulia Street on Jan 22, 2026. Keywords: white collar workers, PMET, work, Professionals, Managers, Executives, and Technicians and economy.

Humans possess lots of different types of skills, from quantitative and cognitive to fine motor, creative, emotional and problem-solving.

ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY

Sarah O’Connor

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Even from a continent away, it is possible to hear the gasps from Silicon Valley as software developers begin to realise that they have very successfully automated away one of their own core skills.

Mr Aditya Agarwal, the former chief technology officer at Dropbox, summed up the mood in a recent post. “It’s a weird time,” he wrote. “I am filled with wonder and also a profound sadness... We will never ever write code by hand again. It doesn’t make any sense to do so. Something I was very good at is now free and abundant.”

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