Last year, advanced new technologies and nanotech production lines led to the creation of 12 million jobs in China. The problem is that these same market drivers ensured that 40 million previously employed office and factory workers lost their jobs.

The Chinese government seems to have been stunned into inaction by this sudden turnaround. “How do we transition to this new world of mass automation?” they ask, as unemployed protesters with nothing to lose openly defy the police in the streets.

The jobs dilemma has been steadily changing the face of factory work in America and Europe – it’s now a global phenomenon. Every year there are fewer ‘level 1’ jobs and public anger has erupted, making the ‘Occupy’ movement and its anti-capitalist demonstrations of 2011 seem tame by comparison.

The perception that process automation, nanotech, robotics, and intelligent apps are destroying jobs rather than creating opportunities, is gaining ground. People of all age groups with ‘old skills’ have become unemployable.

Educators are frantically trying to redesign the centuries-old teaching and training systems to deliver relevant skills – and startup attitudes – that will equip people for a tech-dominated economy and society.

As nations grapple with the global economic slump, protests and riots are commonplace, as millions lose hope that the future will provide for them.

The ‘New Work’ is not about getting a job; it’s about creating a business or filling a niche. It’s just a pity that many of us have realized this shift way too late!