Apps Are Creating New Jobs… But Are Also Replacing Workers

Smartphones and tablets—which typically have built-in cameras, Internet connections and global-positioning systems—enable just about anyone to be a roving merchant or courier. The proliferation of jobs tied to mobile apps recalls the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, when Americans realized they could sell goods to customers from their desktop computers. Though data on the size of the app economy for nondevelopers are scarce, venture capitalists say interest in mobile marketplaces is growing.

Apps may be creating new jobs for developers and marketers. But around the edges of the rest of the economy, they're also starting to become a substitute for people who earn a paycheck. Businesses often say their main goal in developing smartphone applications is to make things easier for customers and to build brand loyalty. Yet they're finding it doesn't take much effort to turn the smartphones carried by most Americans into payment terminals or data-entry forms. As a result, Americans increasingly are becoming their own bank tellers, loan officers, insurance adjusters, checkout clerks, restaurant order takers, citrus-crop inspectors and mall concierges.