[tintor]

"According to the Planet Money podcast, in the US alone, there are 400,000 fewer accounting clerks today than in 1980, the first full year that VisiCalc went on sale.

But Planet Money also found that there were 600,000 more jobs for regular accountants. After all, crunching numbers had become cheaper, more versatile, and more powerful, so demand went up.

The point is not really whether 600,000 is more than 400,000: sometimes automation creates jobs and sometimes it destroys them."

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47802280

[throwawaycopter]

And I still need to hire and accountant to do my taxes every year.

Just throwing numbers on a spreadsheet didn't do the trick.

[mnky9800n]

This is a manufactured problem by companies who create tax software who lobby the American government to increase the complexity of the tax code. I have never needed to hire an accountant to do my personal taxes in any country other then the USA.

[UncleEntity]

> The point is not really whether 600,000 is more than 400,000

Sounds to me the existing jobs are more skilled than the former ‘accounting clerks’ which just sounds like data entry people.

Back in the day my mom used to do the books for the grocery store she worked for and all she really did was tally up all the data from the multiple cash registers and send it off to the corporate accountants. Not a whole lot of skill needed aside from attention to detail to ensure the totals were correct.