A totally new area of opportunity is developing around internet business but does it give extra jobs or replace others in a more traditional setting? Reports continue to circulate about the increase in the Online Jobs market and how it will have a positive impact on the number of unemployed in the UK over the next couple of years. On the surface of it this would seem to be correct.

Firms are appearing at a great rate taking advantage of the huge demand in online shopping from individual things for personal use such as presents, household equipment, fashion and books to the business to business type trade where larger scale trading takes place. We can also see the growth of existing businesses who have realised the online opportunities and have expanded their offering, moving into online sales and therefore widening their audience hugely. Both of these circumstances will mean an increase in employee numbers whether they Work From Home or in the office or factory.

Certainly in the short term this will cut down the jobless figures as existing roles carry on and people are recruited into the new positions created and developed by the organisation from this exciting new source. On top of the sales processing or customer service jobs there will also be increases in administration roles such as human resources, finance departments and of course in production areas. As demand on each particular business increases due to their successful internet promotion virtually all areas of the business will need to expand. The company will also need to deal with larger distribution, banking and accountancy requirements meaning that there will be increased demand on outside organizations servicing the growing business.

However at some point, presumably after the euphoria brought on by the spectacular increase in sales has settled, the business will need to reevaluate all of it’s elements. It may be that this takes a while to come about, however in the most astute companies they may already be anticipating downturns in other sales areas. The organisation may at that point see that areas such as high street sales have been negatively affected by the move towards internet marketing and it may be decided that it is no longer worth operating in those areas.

So ultimately we could see simply a shift in the sales arena, from the more conservative types such as high street shops and catalogue chains to the newer and more successful Internet Business. Jobs will vanish in the old sectors as high street shop profits plumet and organizations see a much better return on investment from their e-commerce activities. The workforce in these shrinking markets will reduce and we could end up with a jobless figure that is larger than the existing one.

Of course, it’s by no means sure that there will be an increase in joblessness as a result of these trends. History from the dawn of the industrial revolution shows us that these sorts of efficiencies make society as a whole richer over time. A proportion of the people losing their jobs will start up new micro businesses, and taking advantage of the changes which caused their owners to lose their jobs in the first place, enough of these firms will develop into important employers in their own right. Thereby soaking up those whose jobs were lost at the start of the trend.