Coronavirus: ‘new-collar jobs’ to shape future of work, says Andrew Liveris

Former leading industrialist ­Andrew Liveris says Australians need to recognise that future manufacturing employment will be seen as ‘new-collar’ jobs.

Former ceo and chairman of the Dow Chemical Company Andrew Liveris has been appointed adviser to the ­National COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission.

Former leading industrialist ­Andrew Liveris says Australians should stop thinking in terms of creating white-collar or blue-collar jobs and recognise that future manufacturing employment will be seen as “new-collar” jobs.

“As supply chains and factories become digital, as both existing factories get modernised and new modern factories get built, the skills to operate and build and deliver products and services to the consumer will be higher in technology content, and geared to a human/machine interface,” he said.

“These jobs will no longer be categorised as white-collar or blue-collar, but as new-collar jobs. They will be higher quality, less physical and more interesting. They will be available to high school or university graduates. Education will need to be modified to allow access to all for these skills.”

Mr Liveris is the former CEO and chairman of the Dow Chemical Company and was recently appointed an adviser to the ­National COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission which is charged with reporting to the federal government about building a new manufacturing sector.

In The Deal, Mr Liveris says the 21st-century roles will be “quality jobs, not quantity jobs”. They would be highly paid and in high-margin sectors.

He identified skills in design, programming, project management and product development as key to Australia’s future employment growth.

Crucial areas for future jobs would include biomed and health products, food and agribusiness processing, mining technology and services, tech steel manufacturing, advanced building materials, fertiliser and explosives, chemicals and advanced materials and composites, and renewables and recycling sectors.

Mr Liveris said Australia should look towards building new capabilities such as 3D printing, advanced sensors, robots and drones, visualisation technologies and advanced analytics and AI.

Visy Industries executive chairman Anthony Pratt tells The Deal that Australia’s competitive advantage means “we should double down on the growing and manufacturing of food, which will create more jobs”.

“I think we should focus on our free-trade agreements,” he said.

“We need to export food as much as we can as the cornerstone of our manufacturing ­revival and I think we should import things we don’t have a competitive advantage in, so we avoid subsidising industries that are not economically viable.

“Food is our biggest manufacturing sector today and represents 30 per cent of all manu­facturing jobs. Australia has a natural competitive advantage in growing things. We don’t need subsidies and tariffs to keep that part of the manufacturing sector growing.”