Machines to handle over half of workplace tasks by 2025
More than half of all
workplace tasks will be carried out by machines by 2025, organizers of the
Davos economic forum said in a report released Monday that highlights the speed
with which the labour market will change in coming years.
The World Economic Forum
estimates that machines will be responsible for 52% of the division of labour
as share of hours within seven years, up from just 29% today. By 2022, the
report says, roughly 75 million jobs worldwide will be lost, but that could be
more than offset by the creation of 133 million new jobs.
A major challenge,
however, will be training and re-training employees for that new world of work.
"By 2025, the
majority of workplace tasks in existence today will be performed by machines or
algorithms. At the same time a greater number of new jobs will be
created," said Saadia Zahidi, a WEF board member. "Our research
suggests that neither businesses nor governments have fully grasped the size of
this key challenge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution."
The 'Future of Jobs 2018'
report, the second of its kind, is based on a survey of executives representing
15 million employees in 20 economies. Its authors say the outlook for job
creation has become more positive since the last report in 2016 because
businesses have a better sense of the opportunities made possible by
technology.
The WEF said challenges
for employers include enabling remote work, building safety nets to protect
workers, and providing reskilling for employees. However, the report found that
only one in three respondents planned to reskill at-risk workers.
Despite net positive job
growth, the WEF anticipates a significant shift in the quality, location,
format and permanency of new roles. Businesses are to expand use of contractors
for task-specialized work, engage workers in more flexible arrangements,
utilize remote staffing, and change up locations to get access to the right
talent.
The report said nearly
half of all companies expect their full-time workforces to shrink by 2022,
while nearly two in five expect to extend their workforce generally, and over
one-quarter expect automation to create new roles in their enterprises.
Germany's powerful DGB
trade union association warned against too rapid change in the world of
work.
"People, whether
they're workers or consumers, will only accept and tolerate the consequences if
technology serves them—and not
they it," Reiner Hoffmann told daily Welt in reaction to the WEF report.
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