More than half of the jobs furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom are at the risk of being automated, a new report shows.
The two-year commission on workers and technology showed that workers from hospitality, leisure and retail sectors were the most adversely affected by the pandemic. According to the commission, 5.9 million of the 9.6 million furloughed workers were in the third of sectors where jobs ran the highest risk of being replaced by automation.
For some employees, the ability (enabled by technology) to work from home has saved their jobs, but the acceleration of technology in the workplace – particularly in the use of assembly robots and a shift to predominantly online shopping and services to maintain physical distance – has elevated the risk of redundancies. With online spending booming, firms that can afford to automate can operate with fewer staff, which benefits the firm, but not its blue-collar workers. This comes on top of thousands of jobs lost to business closures as a result of the lockdown.
The report notes that, during the pandemic, firms have made permanent changes to the way they use technology, and this means permanent changes to the way business and society operate. With these changes comes the real danger of widening inequality and long-term structural unemployment.
[Picture: Pete Linforth from Pixabay]