OECD predicts that automation will eliminate 14 percent of jobs

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Activities that demand professional titles and continuous training will be less susceptible to automation, according to OECD.

OECD predicts that automation will eliminate 14 percent of jobs
exc-5ac7ce6e8a922da5caa2fe43
Reading time 2 minutes
Reading Time: 2 minutes




Robots working on the automation era

Activities that demand professional titles and continuous training will be less susceptible to automation.

Photo:Bigstock.com

Once again, we are facing a study that predicts the impact that automation will have on jobs. As we have read in recent months, there is confusion and distrust in the face of the technological revolution that many specialists predict.

Some studies like the McKinsey study state that up to 30 % of jobs are at risk of being displaced. A report from the World Economic Forum estimates that more than 7 million jobs will be lost. Gartner says that only 1.8 million will disappear worldwide. In turn, the OECD predicts that 14 % of work activities will cease to exist. Whom to listen to?

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), whose objective is to coordinate the economic and social policies of its member nations, published a survey carried out 32 countries to assess the risk of certain jobs to disappear, and the windows of opportunity that this technological revolution will open.

Here are the most relevant findings:

  • Of the 32 nations studied, almost 50 % of jobs will be significantly affected by automation. Depending on the level of development and technological adoption of each country.
  • The study suggests that these technological advances will generate new job options. The offer will grow in the service sector. However, some activities related to parcel services, food industry, and transport will be highly automatable.
  • The activities in manufacturing and agriculture will be strongly affected by the creation of new machinery and processes.
  • The activities related to social intelligence, cognitive intelligence and perception won’t be automated.
  • Specialists of the OECD affirm that the most automatable occupations are those that require little educational level. Contrary, the activities that demand professional titles and continuous training will be less susceptible to automation.
  • Employment that usually hires young workforce will offer fewer opportunities. However, youth will quickly adopt the skills that new positions will demand.

The OECD suggests that it is necessary for educational policies to encourage adults to prepare continuously to ensure that they adapt efficiently to new job requirements. Otherwise, unemployment rates could rise.

We do not know with certainty the collateral damage that the automation will cause, but we can weigh different investigations to be able to measure the possible impact that it will have on the economy of our countries and our jobs

a5631571_admin

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0