Design systems aren't replacing design jobs. They're actually causing a bubble of design jobs because they take more work to maintain.

I couldn't disagree more.

Design systems will simplify the job of designers, but I think designers roles will continue to become more important, and from that, I believe the quantity of 'design jobs' will increase.

What will happen to software designers’ jobs as their work is increasingly automated

I think it's interesting that you understand design systems to be something that automates a designers job. I've felt lately that a design system is something that helps a design team focus on more important things. If we have a system that makes the UI component of our job faster, and more efficient, we can focus on a lot more than just skinning new UI.

Imagine smaller teams being able to focus on truly testing usability, prototyping crazy new ideas and creating new functionality that they just didn't have time to conceive in the past because they were too busy pushing pixels.

I think Design Systems will help designers have much more impact on business, and when that happens, designers could become even more of an asset.

EDIT:

It’s true that most designers are creative problem solvers whose skills extend beyond their ability to use a tool like Figma or Photoshop.

Come on... No one uses Photoshop anymore. Say it with me... "Sketch"

I'm sure this makes much more sense to someone whose context is "companies that hire like 800 designers." Yeah, they probably won't need to employ 800 designers.

For most companies — someone still needs to design the systems, and that probably does not imply less designers if they're already working with a very small team.

Not being in the bay area, getting qualified help for product design is hard because no one comes with experience building products. A design system for our team would ease the burden by making design wins easier to share and scale.

Yeah, I think most designers should do more than just craft UI — like prototype, ensure quality handoff by learning something about code, learn some product and UX skills, learn prototyping etc. There will at least need to be SOME master UI craftspeople out there as well.

And developer jobs too.

cars and design - good example. interior designers, sound designers, fraigrence designers, light designers, mood designers, not even starting to talk about the interfaces like headup, displays, gestures, voice. in situations where there is a lot of similarity in function (four wheels, driving, etc), design is exactly what makes the difference. ask bmw. and sorry for my english.

You are the only person I have interviewed who has said that.

What? I'm sure everyone agrees that design systems save design time, ultimately requiring less designers.