12 Million Jobs Might Be Lost To Automation

By the year 2040, it’s estimated that up to 34% of jobs in Europe could be taken over by technology.

This redundancy, according to Forrester’s Future of Jobs Forecast, will primarily impact workers in the food service, retail, and hospitality sectors. Companies will likely prioritize productivity and managing a drop in workers due to an aging population. According to the report, labor that consists of routine, simple tasks are extremely likely to be at risk.

Within the ‘Europe-5’, comprised of France, Germany Spain, Italy and the UK, lower-paying or part-time work is at the highest risk, considering that workers in those positions don’t tend to have much bargaining power. A study of French manufacturing firms concluded that robots reduced labor costs between 4% and 6%, as well as lowered production overheads.

Due to the pandemic, companies are turning towards machine processes in order to make up for lost efficiency and productivity. Europe in particular has an aging population, which poses a problem for organizations who are looking into the future of their business. Polls show that C-level and senior management personnel were 78% more likely to increase their investment in automation tools, and are doing so due to a difficult struggle in finding new talent.

Executives in the U.S. feel similarly, with 85% of respondents saying they’ll incorporate automation and training into their place of work in order to attract new talent. Forecasts of job loss currently vary widely, as there’s still not enough concrete evidence to reliably predict which organizations will adopt automation and at what pace.