Technology firms create non-tech jobs as well, say leaders

As the world debates technological innovations like artificial intelligence killing jobs, top global leaders, including IMF chief Christine Lagarde, today said a good narrative is that even technology companies indirectly and directly create non-tech jobs.
Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said it is a misconception that technology companies have created only tech jobs. Facebook itself has helped a large number of small and medium businesses reach their audience and create a huge number of jobs, she added.
On hate messages and hoaxes being spread through Facebook such as posts about an Indian being shown as a Pakistani, she said the company takes these instances very seriously.

Lagarde said one great positive narrative is that even technology companies like Facebook and Ebay are creating a large number of non-tech jobs.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman said pace of change in technologies is only going to accelerate going ahead.
Concurring with Sandberg's view, Whitman said platforms like Ebay and Amazon marketplace have created a huge number of jobs in the small and medium enterprises segment of the economies across the world.

"Part of the narrative about technology is that you have to have a PhD to get a job in it, but it's just not true," she said.

She also said art and films are going to play a very important role in creating a positive narrative.
On technology favouring the highly skilled more, Whitman said technology actually can accommodate different kinds of jobs including those that do not require high skills.
Speaking at a session on 'A Positive Narrative for Global Community' at the WEF annual meeting here, award winning documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy said she sees more hope today among the youth.
"I see less anxiety and more hope among the young people I work with," she said.
Noting that keeping quite on seeing atrocities is also doing an injustice, she said her films have led to the government in Pakistan introducing stricter laws against atrocities against women.

According to her, young people today can see through things and it is not easy to hide anything.
Among millennials, 70 per cent look optimistically to the
future and more than half believe they can actively contribute to decision-making in their countries, according to the Global Shapers Annual Survey.
The panelists also discussed how leaders can draw on this spirit to envision positive narratives for the future.
Afghanistan National Institute of Music founder Ahmad Sarmast said he felt music, culture and arts can help get sustainable peace in his country.
He said his music school is not only for girls and women but also for men of Afghanistan which helps in reconciling the two genders, a point on which Lagarde complimented him.

On political discourse of the day in many countries being ultra nationalist and against people from outside, Lagarde said there is a need to have common goals even if each and every country may have their own specific issues.
"We form a global community with a common purpose and goal, but every economy is going to have its specificities," she observed.
Sandberg said narratives are very important part when we talk about resilience.
Sandberg added she started her career with World Bank with a project on malaria in India where she saw real poverty.