<i>&gt;You can try as hard as you want to get a job - if no one is hiring, you aren&#x27;t going to get one.</i><p>True as far as it goes, and I too am concerned about the future of work, but I&#x27;m skeptical that we have ever seen, or will ever see, a future in which &quot;no one is hiring&quot;.  Today, there is <i>tremendous</i> demand for certain occupations, even as others are being hollowed out.<p>The difference from historical expectations is that the rate of change between who was hiring last year and who will be hiring next year is growing, and quickly.<p>People &quot;trying hard&quot; to get jobs in technology almost certainly can do so. People &quot;trying really, really, really hard&quot; to get jobs in heavy manufacturing in the American midwest are probably going to have a hard time (as are would-be blacksmiths, weavers, scribes, typists, telephone operators and many others).<p>Said another way: the direction of the &quot;hard work&quot; vector is more important than the magnitude.  Said still another way: &quot;work smarter, not harder&quot;. Said yet one more way: &quot;make something people want.&quot;