Last year, when Infosys suddenly increased their funding for Internet of Things, AI and Robotics related research and incubation of startups, then we warned everyone about the possible threat to jobs from technology.
When we reported that around 1,00,000 people have lost their jobs in companies like TCS and Infosys solely due to automation, skeptics thought that we are still speaking an unknown language. And we claimed that 50% of all IT jobs would evaporate in the next few years, few people believed us.
But now, World Economic Forum (WEF) has confirmed what we have been saying since long: Technology is destroying jobs at a faster rate than we had imagined.
As per their recent report titled ‘The Future of Jobs’, WEF has categorically stated that the 4th Industrial Revolution is finally here and advancements in technology will destroy over 5 million (50 lakh) jobs by 2020.
Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Bio-Technology are the fields which will bring along an epic change in the way we create jobs and the way human beings work. And if you are into administrative or office desk jobs, then that’s the area where threat looms largest.
The report said, “.. current trends could lead to a net employment impact of more than 5.1 million jobs lost to disruptive labour market changes over the period 2015–2020, with a total loss of 7.1 million jobs..”
As per various calculations done by WEF, advancement in futuristic technologies will create around 2.1 million new jobs from existing ‘job families’ such as Mathematics & Computer Science; Architecture & Designing. Industries which are likely to create these new jobs include: Customer Tech (mobile, ecommerce); Media and Professional Services.
However, at the same time, around 5.1 million existing jobs would be completely replaced by technologies namely Robotics, Nano-Technology, Bio-Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning and more. White collar office jobs are the ones which are actually disappearing at a faster rate than any other job.
Hence, on a broader level, WEF has predicted that 5 million jobs would be gone by 2020.
In fact, as per WEF, 65% of all primary school students right now will end up working for jobs which doesn’t even exist today.
In order to adapt and respond to such tectonic shift in job and industries, WEF has strongly recommended advanced skill training and education for existing employees so that people are not left jobless in the coming years.
The results of this report has been prepared after seeking inputs from 13.5 million workers from these countries: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the US, plus the ASEAN and GCC groups.
These employees are working in industries such as Consumer goods, financial services, media, technology and entertainment. Roughly, the respondents size represents 65% of the global workforce.
Interestingly, India is among those countries which have been specially mentioned as top 5 ‘job creator’ countries, as we will not experience such massive job cuts due to automation and tech in the next 5 years. Other countries besides India where ‘eminent danger of job cuts’ doesn’t exist are: Mexico and Turkey, as also the Gulf Cooperation Council region.
However, the future is certainly inevitable.
You can find the complete report here.
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