With employment tipped to remain around the 6% level in Australia for the next few years and regional areas like Far North Queensland always hit harder, what does the future of employment look like over the next decade and beyond for regional Australia?

This is the question that sparked one of my regular catch ups with Phil Staley of ABC Far North Queensland .

The reality is that regardless of where you are on the planet, routine jobs are disappearing – even China who built its renaissance on “many inexpensive hands” doing repetitive tasks cheaply is now and for the foreseeable future the largest user of Robots on the planet – but in their place are a whole new swag of careers, jobs and money-making opportunities.

As the bank teller and check-out person of yesterday slowly become less desirable long-term career choices and are being replaced with career choices in the digital space, service industry and health we are also seeing new horizons of employment and income less dependent on where you are physically based by allowing you to digitally tap into a global marketplace that allows someone in Cairns to work for, hire, collaborate with, or trade with someone in San Francisco, Bangladesh or Norway or anywhere else easily, inexpensively and in real-time.

We are seeing the rise of the Solopreneur, someone who may have core work with one employer, but perhaps is selling their home-made macrame plant holder on Etsy, unused or pre-loved products in eBay or their skills in Airtsaker, and who knows that their livelihood and career are totally in their hands and that they must manage it judiciously, rather than waiting for employers or others to offer advancement and opportunities to them.

We are saying goodbye to many jobs of old and this is sad and we can lament of it, but its causes are human, we no longer desire those services, need those goods or are unwilling to pay for the people costs involved in having them.

As we have done throughout millennium we will replace these jobs with others. The added complexity now, as against previous times,  is the digital world, robots, 3D printers, internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, autonomous cars and a long line of other new industries on the horizon that are all beginning to reshape culture and our human expectations.

The surety of tomorrow is that there will be opportunity, perhaps not in the same way or in the same place as it once was, but regardless of where we are and what our skill sets are it will be possible to forge a vital and vibrant future for ourselves blending the best of the past with the promises of the future.

The confines of a remote region need no longer be barriers to engagement with the rest of the world.

An individual or business with a big idea can now readily sell that idea to the world, regardless of where they or their customers are, but to take advantage of these new horizons we will need to cut the anchor with many of our long-held beliefs and work models and we will need to evolve our education system whilst simultaneously up-skilling and providing confidence to the workforce of today.

All in all, a great segment (12 minutes 2 seconds), have a listen now and then let me now your thoughts on the future of employment in regional areas.