I find jobs from the past interesting, but not appealing. Things have changed and I can not really imagine living in the past. To my opinion, the job of the washerwomen was the most difficult of all on the list. Women had to carry heavy loads of laundry and scrub them really hard to make it clean.
Jobs in the present seem much more interesting to me, specially the ones connected to computers. People who work on computers must be well educated and they spend a lot of time sitting behind their desks. What I'm really interested in is what the future jobs will be like. One of my teachers once said that we are being educated for the jobs that don't even exist. I hope my job will be interesting and well-paid.

Jobs from the Past

 

New technology has changed a lot of things and it also created jobs our ancestors would never imagine. It also caused some jobs to disappear. Jobs and services that were once thought to be very important have become unnecessary.

Some of the jobs that no longer exist are: milkman, typist, iceman, elevator operator, nocker-upper, rat catcher, lamplighter, governess, scribe, town crier, press gang and washerwoman. They may sound strange or even funny – but nothing comparing to being a fool. This is not a bad joke – a fool was a man whose job was to entertain a king, a queen, their guests and important persons by making them laugh. And sometimes this wasn't an easy job at all.

Let's peek into the 15th century. Most people were small farmers, who lived on farms. Usually it was the oldest son of the family who would inherit the land. Besides farming, people did other things to support their family, such as spinning wool into thread. Skilled trades were passed from father to son. If a person had more children, it was only one who could take over his parents' business, the rest of them had to find other work. If one wanted to become a clergyman, a lawyer or a doctor they needed good education. Midwives were respected and not every woman could become one.

Over the last century, new jobs appeared due to the needs caused by two world wars. Many jobs that were previously taken exclusively by men were now taken by women. A lot of new jobs were created by health epidemics and – as strange as it seems – by the extreme weather. Economic growth, too created new jobs because more people were working and had more money to spend.

On one hand, technology created new jobs, such as software engineers, systems analysts and web page designer, but on the other some popular jobs such as secretaries and clerks were no longer needed.

Today's world population is growing older and old people need more doctors and nurses while young people need more education to get a good job than ever. This means that we need more teachers, too. People's habits have also changed. More and more people can afford to travel which creates many jobs, such as hotel clerks, managers, tour guides, and recreation consultants. More and more people want to live eco-friendly, and eco-friendly style of living is opening a number of new jobs, from nutricionists to solar electricians.