Industries Facing Extinction: Which Sectors Will Disappear by 2040?

Imagine applying for a job today—a routine, respectable one—that simply won’t exist in 15 years. Think about the video rental guy from back in the day, or the telephone booth repairman. Their worlds got flipped upside down by technology and changing tastes. Now, some of the jobs around us might be next. The list might surprise you, or worry you—especially if you’re part of it.

The Ticking Clock on Traditional Retail

If you walk down the high streets of any major city, you can already sense the change. Shops that used to pulse with customers are turning into warehouses or shut-down shells. Traditional retail, the kind where you stroll in, browse, and leave with a bag in hand, looks more and more like yesterday’s news. Physical bookstores, electronics chains, and even fashion outlets are feeling the pinch. In India, local neighborhood kiranas are still holding on strong, but the storm is coming for larger outlets. According to a FICCI report from late 2024, brick-and-mortar retail footfall in urban India has dropped by about 40% over the past five years. Globally, giants like Macy’s and Debenhams have been closing stores by the hundreds. It’s not just COVID-19’s fault either—it just made the inevitable move faster.

The big disruptor? E-commerce. Amazon, Flipkart, JioMart—they turned shopping into a click-and-wait game. But there’s more. AI-powered recommendation engines are now so good that people trust them more than a chat with the floor manager. Virtual try-ons and AR apps let you see how a sofa or a kurta fits in your space, all without leaving your couch. Some reports, like one from Gartner, warn that as much as 70% of certain product categories will be primarily sold online in less than a decade.

Here’s another twist: as payment systems get more seamless and logistics get super-quick, even the beauty of ‘window shopping’ is fading. Add subscription models—think Dollar Shave Club or NatureBox—where stuff comes to your door without you even remembering you need it. Retail workforces worldwide already notice: over 2 million retail jobs vanished in the US alone in the last decade. Here’s the thing: it won’t just be the cashiers or sales staff. Supply-chain managers, visual merchandisers, and even mid-level store managers are being replaced or relocated, thanks to automation and centralization.

The next 15 years could turn big physical stores into rare showrooms or even museums of shopping history. Expect to see local shops that adapt—offering hyper-personalized services, handmade items, or instant delivery—survive. But those that can’t innovate, streamline, or digitize? They’ll disappear, following video rental stores into history.

The Slow Fade of Fossil Fuel Energy

If there’s a sector with a giant metaphorical timer ticking, it’s fossil-fueled energy production. Coal mines and oil rigs still run the show in plenty of places, and yes, India still depends on coal for almost 50% of its power. Yet the writing’s on the wall. Solar panels are everywhere now—even my cousin’s village in Karnataka has started getting electricity thanks to solar mini-grids. Wind farms are popping up along the coast. In Europe, the shift has been even sharper: Denmark and Portugal hit more than 80% green energy months in 2023.

This isn’t just good vibes or climate activism talking. Costs have changed everything. A decade ago, solar was pricey—people joked it was a plaything for the rich or idealists. But according to the International Energy Agency, in 2024, solar power became the world’s cheapest source of electricity. That’s not some green campaign: it’s raw market forces. Big companies—think Reliance, Tata, even Adani—now pour billions into renewables. Global banks have stopped funding new coal power plants almost entirely.

Now, let’s talk jobs. The end of fossil fuel as a growth industry doesn’t just mean fewer mine workers. Engineers, rig specialists, even whole train lines dedicated to coal transport face extinction-level changes. According to a UN study, India’s coal sector could lose up to 40% of its workforce by 2040 without major retraining efforts. There are warning bubbles elsewhere, too. Oil refineries in the US Gulf are being torn down; electric vehicle sales in China outsold petrol ones in six months out of 2024.

A lot of jobs in maintenance, transport, and extraction will become irrelevant. The flipside: by 2040, ‘just transition’ efforts—moving people from fossil jobs to renewables—could become the next big government priority worldwide. If you’re building a career in traditional energy, it’s smart to start upskilling towards green tech, battery maintenance, solar infrastructure, or sustainable logistics. It’s not just about saving the planet. It’s about being employable when the lights in the old plants go out for good.

The Vanishing Act of Physical Media

Remember a time when people proudly displayed DVD collections, kept photo albums on dusty shelves, or raced back from school to record songs on cassettes? Fast-forward to now: cassettes belong in nostalgia posts and retro cafes. DVDs collect mold, if you even have a player anymore. India’s music scene used to thrive on CD sales; today, a hit single blows up on a streaming platform within hours. The entire industry of making, selling, and even repairing physical media hardware is draining out like water from a leaky bucket.

The numbers don’t lie. According to IFPI and IMI, physical music sales in India have dropped by over 95% since 2010. Globally, even Hollywood blockbusters rarely see big DVD releases. Piracy? Sure, that was a villain. But it was streaming—Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, JioSaavn, Spotify—that delivered the knockout punch. Companies making CD burners, DVD players, or even camera film have either switched to niche products or shut shop. Kodak, once the king of cameras, filed for bankruptcy years ago. Today, Japan’s last VCR maker is gone; the few tape producers left cater to artists, collectors, or quirky indie directors.

There are still outliers, like vinyl records making a comeback. But that’s a blip, a nostalgic hobby, not a market-sized shift. Media rental shops anywhere in the world have vanished; in Bangalore, those small nooks renting CDs or games disappeared before 2020. The real loss is in the jobs: manufacturers, transport workers shipping physical goods, even designers, and disc printers. Now, all the action is in cloud storage, streaming recommendation, or digital content curators. People who adapted to editing, digital archiving, or running servers had a lifeline. Those tied to replicating, stacking, or selling physical stuff didn’t.

One important lesson: never build your career purely around a technology that can be replaced by a cheaper, faster, and more convenient digital option. If you or someone you know dreams of launching a magazine, music label, or video store, maybe it’s time to pivot into digital-first models. The *industries disappearing* the fastest are those whose entire existence depended on staying offline in an online age.

Will Financial Clerks, Travel Agents, and Data Entry Workers Survive?

Flip to a different gear: jobs that were everywhere but hid in plain sight. Think of all the paperwork specialists, the travel planners hovering behind their desks, or the army of data entry operators India supplied to the world. Time seemed frozen here—who would automate humans out of jobs requiring so many tiny judgment calls or local knowledge?

Turns out, almost everyone is. Major Indian banks trimmed over a tenth of clerical jobs between 2019 and 2024. They didn’t need to sack people—software just took over bit by bit. UPI payments, AI chatbots, and smart KYC checks slashed routine verification work. My friend’s father, a respected teller at a local cooperative, now spends more time helping customers set up net banking than actually counting cash. And don’t get me started on government forms that used to take a week; now, you fill them online and get a digital stamp within hours.

Travel agents had their golden years. But when was the last time you used one? Expedia, MakeMyTrip, or Agoda can plan complicated routes in seconds, show live prices, offer deals, and even suggest sightseeing. With more hotels, airlines, and operators going ‘direct-to-customer’, even the niche roles like visa consultants or event planners are shifting online. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, traditional travel agency employment has halved since 2010 in several countries. Bangalore’s Brigade Road, once lined with tour agents, now has just a handful—mostly selling niche adventure trips or corporate packages.

Now about data entry. This job was an Indian staple—the classic ‘back-office’ gig for millions. But with digitization and smarter AI, much of that work vanished. OCR software can scan and upload handwritten forms in seconds. Machine learning tools sort, standardize, and even correct human errors better than humans. Freelancers chasing these gigs on portals like Upwork or Freelancer see smaller payouts, more competition, and fewer tasks. The Indian BPO scene isn’t dead, but even legacy titans like Infosys or TCS are shifting towards analytics, process automation, and AI training—not plain typing jobs.

If you work in one of these industries or know people who do, the smartest tip is to retrain and re-skill, as fast as you can. Learn digital platforms, data visualization tools, or software that lets you automate routine workflows. Grab short courses on digital marketing, cloud collaboration, or cybersecurity. The future belongs to those who can blend tech skills with human creativity. No industry sticks around forever if machines or the internet can do the job better, faster, and cheaper. That’s not a threat—it’s a nudge to get ahead, before your role becomes a question mark on some future list of ‘extinct jobs.’