We recently came across an unfamiliar word in the office. Although written clearly in very nice handwriting, we weren’t sure we were reading it correctly.

The word was “sawyer.”

Finally, one of our foremost linguists told us we were correct, and that “sawyer” referred to a profession related to sawing lumber.

That sparked a bit of a conversation about jobs — and their titles — which have been rendered obsolete because of technology.

Some are obvious — gladiator and plague doctor were among my favourites — but some have become obsolete in the last couple of decades.

One example that came up was Blockbuster employee. You can add Zellers employee to that list too.

Of course, with each job that technology overtakes, there is room for at least one new job to be created.

The title “social media manager” has gone from a nonsensical stringing together of words to one of the fastest growing job categories in the communications realm.

Canadianbusiness.com has a list of the 100 “best” jobs in 2014 ranked by a combination of how rosy their demand prospects are, how well they pay, and how those numbers have changed over the last five years and are expected to change in the next five.

With all those factors combined, the list places lawyer in the top spot for its high median salary (comfortably over the $70,000 mark), its huge growth over the last five years (29 per cent) and positive outlook for demand and expected wage growth over the next five years.

Public administrator came in second, and oil and gas drilling supervisor came in third.

The chart is interactive, so you can play around to check out how rankings differ if you prioritize one of the ranking features. By demand/outlook, which was weighted at a quarter of each ranking, power line and cable worker came in the top spot, followed by financial auditor/accountant, and then construction/contractor supervisor.

The demand metric is based on estimations from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

On the New York-based Businessinsider.com, many of the 30 fastest-growing jobs in the U.S. were in the health-care sector (physical therapists, veterinarians, mental health professionals, medical assistants). Professions in the trades, including brickmasons, stonemasons, and tile setters ranked quite highly as well on the list, which used U.S. Labour Market statistics.

Translator/interpreter was another top-ranked job in terms of projected growth, which makes sense as technology makes it easier for far-flung corners of the world to connect, but doesn’t guarantee they’ll understand one another.

As technology renders some jobs, such as sawyers, obsolete, it also offers opportunities for growth in unexpected areas.

Just think of the average office worker’s experience with computers. I’m sure many out there, myself included, have had to call the company help desk or on-staff tech whiz at one point or another.

The challenge is to balance the number of jobs rendered obsolete by technology equal or less than the number of jobs created by it.