Robots And AI Will Create More Jobs Than They Replace
Up to 800 million global workers will lose their jobs by 2030 and be replaced by robotic automation, a new report from a consultancy has found.
The study of 46 countries and 800 occupations by the McKinsey Global Institute found that up to one-fifth of the global work force will be affected.
It said one-third of the workforce in richer nations like Germany and the US may need to retrain for other jobs.
Machine operators and food workers will be hit hardest, the report says.
Poorer countries that have less money to invest in automation will not be affected as much, according to McKinsey.
India, the authors write, will only have about 9% of jobs replaced by emerging technologies.
The authors see tasks carried out by mortgage brokers, paralegals, accountants, and some back-office staff as especially vulnerable to automation.
Jobs requiring human interaction such as doctors, lawyers, teachers and bartenders are seen by McKinsey as less prone to automation.
Specialised lower-wage jobs, such as gardening, plumbing and care work, will also be less affected by automation, the study predicted.
In developed countries, the need for a university education will grow, as jobs that require less education shrink.
However, Robots and AI will actually create more jobs than they take!
The combination of artificial intelligence and robotics will displace up to millions of jobs between 2017 and 2037.
However, this will lead to a reduction in costs and increases in spending, which in turn could generate 7.2 million jobs, a net gain of 200,000 jobs, according to accountancy firm PwC.
Jobs in health, scientific and technical services, and hospitality are predicted to increase, while those in manufacturing, transport and storage, and public administration will decrease.
Automation seems to be less disruptive than we had feared. In 2013, a study from the University of Oxford suggested that around half of jobs in the US and a third in the UK were at “high risk” of automation in the preceding years.
But this has since been revised. In April, economic organisation the OECD said the figures are more likely to be 10 per cent in the US and 12 per cent in the UK.
In the US alone, 39 to 73 million jobs may be eliminated by 2030, but about 20 millions of those displaced workers may be able to easily transfer to other industries, according to the McKinsey report.
In the UK, 20% of current jobs will be automated over the same period, the author's forecast.
How long will it take for your job to be automated
The authors believe the world will see a transition on the scale of the early 1900s when much of global industry switched from farming to factory work.
But they caution that new technology will yield new types of jobs, similar to the introduction of the personal computer in the 1980s which led to technology support work, and online business.
The report's authors urge governments to enact plans to retrain their citizens.
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