Finding a job that pays the bills and brings satisfaction is crucial. But it’s hard to feel fulfilled when stuck in a dead-end job. We’ve rounded up 18 dead-end professions with little or no opportunity for advancement.
Print Journalist
Print newspapers and magazines are facing challenging times due to the popularity of free online news. The New York Times, for example, has seen a significant drop in its print readership. Newspapers are cutting staff to cope with reduced ad earnings and fewer readers. So, journalists need to be more online marketers to be able to navigate these challenges.
Retail Cashier
The decline in retail cashiers started with introducing self-scanners in supermarket checkout lines. The next step, automated checkout, impacts this job category further. By 2032, the employment of cashiers is expected to decrease by 10%. Cashiers won’t vanish entirely at most stores, but their numbers will decrease considerably.
Bathroom Attendant
Bathroom attendants used to be seen as classy and necessary for fancy places. But now, some people might find them strange because they don’t want someone else in the restroom. In places like department stores, “ladies’ lounges,” they’re more like guides, telling you which stall is free and keeping things clean.
Telemarketer
Working as a telemarketer can be stressful because many call centers have strict quotas and may fire you if you need to meet them. On top of this, the demand for telemarketers has sharply decreased, mainly because Caller ID technology allows people to screen their calls. Additionally, there’s a high likelihood that telemarketing jobs will be fully automated within 15 years, leading to the loss of millions of jobs.
Fast Food Worker
Fast food jobs are infamous for paying very little, having repetitive tasks, unpredictable schedules, and minimal benefits. In fact, the term “McJob” has become a synonym for a dead-end job. Unfortunately, due to a weak economy, the declining influence of unions, and increased control by management, these conditions will likely stay the same for a while. If you were considering a career in fast food, it might be better to look in a different direction.
Postal Worker
Since 2000, the Postal Service has eliminated 300k jobs, nearly 40% of its workforce. This is mainly because the use of physical mail has significantly dropped in recent years. With many digital alternatives, people send letters and postcards less than before. As a result, postal services are making budget cuts to cope with reduced revenue, reducing postal worker positions.
Taxi Dispatcher
Taxis are still around, but how they’re called might change. To keep up with competitors like Lyft and Uber, many taxi companies switch from the old dispatch setup where operators call the drivers to dispatch software and smartphone apps. This modern approach, directly connecting passengers with drivers, is diminishing the need for the traditional dispatcher role.
Cleaner
The cleaning industry has fierce price competition, resulting in cleaners having their working hours cut to the minimum. This makes the job physically demanding and insecure. Cleaners must be efficient, flexible, and ready to change routines when the company gets new contracts or loses old ones. Because of this, cleaning often turns out to be a dead-end job instead of a stepping stone to something better.
Travel Agent
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the travel booking industry has lost about 21,800 jobs. This isn’t surprising because everyone can now plan their vacation using comparison websites. Platforms like Booking, Airbnb, Trivago, and TripAdvisor allow you to customize accommodation and flight searches based on your budget and dates. All you need is your credit card and a bit of time. Many travel companies are closing physical locations to focus more on their online services.
Assembler
An assembler’s job is to put together parts using blueprints or schematics. Assemblers follow instructions and use tools to build different things like electronic devices, engines, control panels, vehicles, and toys. However, as automation and robotics take over repetitive tasks, the role of assemblers is diminishing in many sectors. Career Planner predicts a 14% decline in employment for assemblers and fabricators by 2026.
Elevator Operator
Elevator operators, once common in big buildings and hotels, are nearly extinct. Also known as liftboys, these uniformed operators are relics from the past. They used to wear white gloves, likely to add a touch of dignity while pressing buttons on the brass panel in the elevator car. But as we’ve become more familiar with electrical and mechanical systems, their job – pressing buttons for people who are perfectly capable of doing it themselves – needs to be updated.
Bank Teller
In many old-style banks, you’ll find only a couple of tellers, and some windows are empty. These branches were likely opened before online banking and mobile check deposits were common. The number of bank tellers has already gone down by over 8%, and it’s expected to keep decreasing at the same rate by 2026, as per the BLS. Even though people will still need financial counselors and specialists, there will be few of them in the remaining open banks.
Waiter
Waiting tables is a skill, but it can also feel like a chore, and the tips are often not worth it. You don’t need additional education, not even a high school diploma, and once you get the hang of it, there’s little more to learn. That’s why, for many people, it’s a job to do in high school after classes or to get through college.
Translator/Interpreter
Translation is currently seen as a job facing challenges from automation, lower prices, and global competition. In the past, translators thought they were safe because computers couldn’t understand the subtleties of language, like dialects, accents, idioms, and multiple meanings of words. However, thanks to translation memory technologies, computers are becoming more capable, so the machine translation sector is growing rapidly and is predicted to be worth $7.57 billion by 2032.
Garbage Collector
Garbage Collector is not only a severely underpaid job (average pay is just $36k a year) but also dangerous. It involves moving large, heavy rolling carts into trucks that are designed to crush, which poses a deadly risk. In fact, garbage collection is the fifth most dangerous job in America, with 34 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers. There’s also concern that this job might not be around in a decade due to automation. In the US, there are already trucks in use that require only one worker, where two used to be the norm.
Librarian
The role of librarians has changed to becoming consultants who assist visitors in using databases and catalogs to find the books they need. However, as voice interaction software and virtual assistants continue to evolve, they may eliminate the need for library staff entirely.
Underwriter
Insurance companies specialize in evaluating risk, and underwriters play a crucial role in determining potential loss or profit, at least for now. However, machines are already assisting in analyzing the vast amounts of data required for assessing risk. Although business and commercial insurance are safe for now because there is too much information needed for quote determination, personal lines like auto underwriting are already significantly automated.
Legal Assistant
More than 30k legal jobs, including roles like legal secretaries, have already been automated due to technological progress. According to Deloitte’s recent research, an additional 114,000 legal jobs could be automated in the next two decades as the industry adopts technologies like AI and cloud computing.
