WEF: robots will "create more jobs than they move"

Millions of jobs are likely to be displaced by automation, but robots have less to fear than what some might think, suggested a report from the World Economic Forum.

The Swiss think tank predicts that robots will move 75 million jobs worldwide by 2022, but will create 133 million new jobs – a "net positive result."

He said progress in the computer would free workers for new tasks.

But others warned that there was no guarantee that lost jobs would be replaced.

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The WEF, which hosts the famous networking event in Davos, said robots and algorithms would significantly improve the productivity of existing jobs and create many new ones in the years to come.

As a result, we would see more data analysts, software developers, and social media specialists, as well as job roles based on "human traits" such as customer service employees and teachers.

However, the focus group said the gains would be due to "significant disruption", with some roles becoming "more and more redundant".

Robots quickly replace positions in accounting firms, factories and post offices, as well as secretarial and cashier positions.

In the midst of this "significant change", workers should be retrained to update their skills, he added.

He also urged governments to prepare safety nets for workers whose jobs are lost.

& # 39; Open question & # 39;

In August, Andy Haldane, chief economist of Bank of England, warned that the robots could eliminate thousands of British jobs.

"The magnitude of the job loss [in the fourth industrial revolution] is likely to be at least as important as that of the first three industrial revolutions, "he said.

Haldane said companies should develop in an innovative way to create new jobs, but if they succeed, it is an "open question".

Others are more optimistic. In July, PwC predicted that artificial intelligence would create as many jobs in the UK as it would in the next 20 years.

And in April, the OECD did not agree with Oxford University's influential forecasts in 2013 that about 47% of jobs in the United States in 2010 and 35% in the UK were likely to be automated over the next 20 years.

Instead, the OECD estimated that the US figure was around 10% and the UK 12% – although this suggests that many more workers would see their tasks significantly change. .