Insight

The future of automation

A quarter (27%) of Brits think the government isn?t doing enough in response to automation in the workplace and almost 7-in-10 (69%) say the government should provide money for re-training if someone loses their job due to automation

The top things they judge the government should be doing are:

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    • Helping people to learn new skills (50%)
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    • Educating people about the opportunities it presents (38%)
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    • Teaching digital skills, such as coding, in schools (37%)

People in certain industries are aware of and expecting jobs and/or tasks they currently do be replaced by automated processes. †

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  • The profession the UK think is most likely to be affected by automation is IT/technology (43%), followed by; Engineering (34%), Transport/logistics (30%) and Retail/wholesale (28%).
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  • A third of workers think it is likely that human jobs or tasks will be replaced by automation in the next 10 years. This is higher for those working in the professions outlined above.
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    • IT/tech (48%)
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    • Financial services (45%)
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    • Engineering (44%)
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    • Building/property (41%)

However, there is mixed feelings on whether the impact of automation will be positive

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  • 22% say automation will have a positive effect on their job/profession, although 27% say it?s effect will be negative.
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  • Interestingly, those who work in an industry they think is likely to be impacted automation are more positive:
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    • IT/tech (50%)
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    • Building/property (35%)
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    • Engineering (33%)
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    • Financial services (31%)
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  • The most negative were those working in Transport and logistics (43%) and Charity (36%)

The young are more worried about the impact of automation on their job than older workers

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  • 31% of workers say they are worried, rising to 37% for 18-34 year olds, whilst only 17% for 55+

Many think that increasing automation in the workplace will make it harder for them to earn a decent wage.

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  • Increasing automation will make it harder to…
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    • Earn a decent wage (49%)
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    • Find a new job in the future (47%)
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    • Reach their earning potential (46%)
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    • To change job roles (41%)

The tables for this data can be found here.