Here are the final entrants on Work and Money’s list of the 25 most dying-est professions in The States.
18. Jeweler – there are actually two definitions of “jeweler” (thanks, Merriam-Webster). One definition covers those who make or repair jewelry, the other covers those who sell jewelry. The reason the article gives for the projected decline in the need for jewelers is that more and more of it is produced overseas, rather than in Rhode Island, where it used to be made. That wouldn’t seem to impact the job fortunes of those who sell jewelry. Assuming they’re also on the downward slide, I’ll chalk it up to ordering jewels on the Internet. Me? Most of my jewelry – self-purchased or a gift – is artsy stuff that comes from the sorts of stores that sell artsy stuff. Which doesn’t include shops that sell jewelry, watches, silverware and china - those anniversary gift stores I seldom find myself in – and that I can’t imagine a millennial in, other than – maybe – to look at engagement rings.
19. Textile machine workers – I watched with my very own eyes the textile industry go South. When I was a kid, we went during the summer to mill outlet stores in Ware and/or Fall River to buy tee-shirts. And then they were no more. They were in South Carolina. Now they’re not even there. They’re in Vietnam an Bangladesh. So I’m surprised that there are enough textile machine workers left to forecast a decline for.
20. Furniture finishers – these are the folks who either repair broken chairs and tables, or who work in furniture production. We used to have a lot of the latter in Massachusetts, too. Before they moved to North Carolina. Now, a lot of that work is automated – or moved across some pond or another. As for those who repair broken chairs and tables. How Little House in the Prairie. Nowadays, when people break furniture, they toss it out and head to IKEA for something new (and for some Swedish meatballs, of course). But my question is: how often does furniture get broken? Unless you have 10 little monkeys, jumping on the bed – i.e., rambunctious kiddoes – you probably don’t break a lot of furniture. Even when I was growing up, we weren’t much by way of furniture breakers. The only piece of furniture I remember breaking was the leg of a bed in the girls bedroom. Having read about Hanukah in Highlights Magazine at the office of our dentist – who was Jewish – we decided one evening to celebrate our very own Festival of No Lights. This entailed turning off the lights and leaping from one twin bed to the other. The result was a broken leg on one of those beds. Mine, I believe. And my parents didn’t bring in any furniture finisher. My father pulled out his Blue Jacket’s Manual (his Navy handbook from WWII) and shored up the broken bed leg with it. (Aside to my sister Trish: the festival was before your time, but that’s why what eventually became your bed was propped up by a Blue Jacket’s Manual.)
21. Door-to-door salespeople, you will not be surprised to learn, are a thing of the past. Our neighborhood wasn’t the kind of area that attracted, say, Bible or vaccum cleaner salesmen, but I do remember the Fuller Brush Man, and the tiny samples of lilac toilet water he used to leave behind – samples that my mother gave to us to use as perfume. The other group I remember going door-to-door were Jehovah Witnesses. They were either trying to find converts, or find people willing to put them up in their homes when they converged on Worcester for a full-immersion baptism ceremony in Coes Pond. The JW’s – a sect considered pretty anti-Catholic - didn’t have a ton of luck in a neighborhood that was about 99.99% Catholic, but they tried. In this day and age, opening your door to a door-to-door salesman (or a Jehovah Witness) is gloriously out of the realm of possibility. But if you want to be a non-door-to-door salesman, fortune is smiling on you: healthy growth over the next decade.
22. Print binding and finishing services – increased automation and decreased demand are finishing off this profession. Let’s face it, today you can self-publish your whatever, on demand, with quick turnaround. No need to seek out a bookbinder to turn you into an author. This does have me wondering on thing: do universities sill require PhD candidates to submit bound versions of their dissertation. I remember taking copies of the typescript of my husband’s thesis to a bookbinder on Brattle Street, a hop, skip and a jump from Harvard. They were doing quite a brisk business, as I recall. Just googled and there’s no dissertation binder there. So maybe you just have to submit a digital version of your thesis, something that didn’t exist back in the day.
23. Detective – what with all the spyware out there, and DNA databanks that let amateur private eyes track down murderers, a lot of the shoe leather work associated with detectives is going away. My big question: what’s going to happen to the mystery novel?
24. Routine Architect – oh, there’ll still be demand for the Frank Lloyd Wrights and the Frank Gehrys to create arty, masterwork buildings. But the folks who focus on smaller, less glamorous projects, are running into a problem with the DIY-ers who want to design on their own. Or who want to buy plans designed by real architects online. They get the benefit of a professional’s eye, but for a lot less than hiring someone one-on-one.
25. Primary Care Physician – I’m old enough to remember doctors making house calls. Those were the days… Anyway, there’s still going to be a need for PCP’s – I know I’d hate like hell if something happened to mine – but we’re all going to be doing more self-diagnosis with kits that tell us if we have a strep throat. And more self-monitoring with wearables that check our vitals. So our primaries will focus on higher level tasks like “addressing human factors that produce better wellness outcomes: counseling for obesity and addiction, performance coaching, or addressing urgent conditions.” Performance coaching? From a physician? Oh, no…
Bottom line: sorry to break it to you, but if you’ve had your heart set on one of these jobs, you might want to set your heart somewhere else. (I hear there’s a growing need for home health aides.)
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