A huge acceleration in the use of robots will affect jobs around the world, Oxford Economics says.
Oxford Economics has asked policymakers, business leaders, workers, and teachers to think about how to develop workforce skills to adapt to growing automation.
“As a result of robotization, tens of millions of jobs will be lost, especially in poorer local economies that rely on lower-skilled workers. This will, therefore, translate to an increase in income inequality,” the study says.
Reasons for the Rise of robots:
Trend #1: Robots are cheaper than humans.
Trend #2: Robots are advanced, perform more work, and are more capable.
Trend #3: Demand for manufactured goods is rising. China is investing in robots to become a global manufacturing leader.
Global GDP could rise to 5.3% if robot installation were boosted to 30%, more than the basic baseline forecast by the year 2030.
The challenge for governments is how to encourage the innovation that the robots promise while making sure they don’t cause new divides in society.
Rory Cellan-Jones BBC “technology correspondent” says that:
We’ve seen plenty of predictions that robots are about to put everyone, from factory workers to journalists, out of a job, with white-collar work suddenly vulnerable to automation.
But this report presents a more nuanced view, stressing that the productivity benefits from automation should boost growth, meaning as many jobs are created as lost.
And while it sees the robots moving out of the factories and into service industries, it’s still in manufacturing that the report says they will have the most impact, particularly in China where armies of workers could be replaced by machines.
Where service jobs are under threat, they are in industries such as transport or construction rather than the law or journalism and it’s lower-skilled people who may have moved from manufacturing who are vulnerable.
So Humans need to get ready for income inequality in the future as Robots are getting ready to take over many jobs.
