Jeff Wald: Navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Why Personal Responsibility Defines the Future of Work

Jeff Wald, author of The End of Jobs and CEO of WorkMarket, examines how robots and AI are creating the fourth industrial revolution—a massive power shift from workers to companies that mirrors past technological upheavals. Drawing from labor history, on-demand platforms, and regulatory battles like California Prop 22, Wald reveals why the lifetime employment contract was always a myth with average job tenure at 5 years in 1960 and 4.2 years today. He introduces the hard tech vs. hard human framework: thriving in automation requires either technical skills like software, AI, and data or human skills that machines cannot replicate such as creativity, empathy, and sales. Wald unpacks how income inequality, personal responsibility, and opportunity gaps threaten societal stability, why unions must reinvent themselves through movements like Fight for 15, and how lifelong learning became non-negotiable when skills now decay within 4-6 years instead of lasting a 30-year career.

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