The rapid pace of technological disruption will transform the lives of workers and create new professions as the global economy enters an era of “robo-sapiens,” according to Bank of America Securities.
This will force around 100 million workers to change occupations by 2030.
A $ 14 trillion opportunity exists for the future of work, where humans and robots will collaborate, the bank said in a report.
“The future of work is not a zero sum between humanity and technology. We believe that humans can collaborate and work alongside robots, rather than being moved by them, and that technology can create more jobs than it destroys, ”said BofA Securities.
These “new” jobs could emerge in industries ranging from healthcare to renewable energy, with humans needing more free time as machines relieve people of mundane and repetitive daily chores.
The future of work is not a zero sum between humanity and technology
Bank of America Securities
Technology, industries, medical technology and education are among the key sectors that could benefit as companies upgrade their skills and retrain their workers.
However, commercial real estate and the old transportation sectors are facing headwinds.
By 2025 alone, automation will result in a net addition of 12 million jobs, with robots eliminating 85 million jobs but creating 97 million new ones, according to the World Economic Forum.
The next decade will be marked by “unprecedented change” in the world of work, according to the BofA Securities report.
Humans and machines could spend as much time completing work tasks by 2025, with the global robot installed base doubling to 5 million units from 2019 levels.
The field of “cobots” – the collaboration between humans and industrial robots – is a rapidly growing field with a projected compound annual growth rate of 50% through 2023.
Besides the work of white and blue collar workers, the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to spur a boom in pink, green and new jobs, BofA Securities said.
Pink collar jobs are occupations in the care economy such as doctors, nurses, psychologists, teachers, and child care providers.
Green jobs involve jobs in the clean energy sector performed by solar engineers, wind technicians, and battery experts, while newer jobs focus on tech, cybersecurity, and coding.
A changing world could lead to “truly futuristic” jobs that have yet to be invented. Some of these new roles could be data privacy managers, nanomedicine surgeons, lab meat scientists, space travel guides, freelance biohackers, AI avatar designers, business leaders. 3D food printers, recreation planners, ethical algorithm programmers and brain simulation specialists, according to the report. .
“We are in the early stages of ‘Eureka! Future tech ‘, where we believe the exponential growth of moonshot technology will create a new wave of professions that we haven’t even thought of yet, ”said the report’s authors.
Many jobs of the future have yet to be created, they said, 65 percent of children who start school today are expected to work in jobs that do not exist today.
“Covid can trigger rapid growth in new types of occupancy,” the report’s authors said.
For example, companies can hire a work from home integration manager to ensure that new technology and equipment is in place to make remote working a success.
Organizations that are new to health and hygiene can hire office disinfectors or chief medical officers.
New professions such as smart home designers and algorithm bias checkers – who ensure that algorithms don’t lead to discriminatory decisions – are emerging.
“Across the globe, the growing demand for automation, artificial intelligence and digitization will drive the need for a wide range of workers such as robot repair technicians and 3D printing engineers,” BofA said. Securities.
A new report by McKinsey Global Institute said the need for workers to change occupations will lead to the requalification of workers – a post-Covid future for which leaders must prepare.
Aging populations, rising consumer incomes and the pandemic will boost healthcare job growth, while transportation jobs will increase due to high demand for delivery, according to McKinsey Global Institute report. and electronic commerce.
The customer service, sales, warehousing and computerized work segments will be the hardest hit in terms of jobs lost.
People in these declining job categories will need to be retrained to take on new occupations.
“The challenge is not just the high numbers, but the leaps they will have to make are much higher than in the past,” said Susan Lund, McKinsey Global Institute leader and labor market expert.
“We’ll have to figure out how to help them make the transition to different career paths. This will disproportionately affect women – four times more than men – and people without a university degree, as well as young people and ethnic minorities. “
While there are areas where humans can beat machines, including jobs that require creativity or social intelligence, the BofA Securities report said the risks posed by robots should not be neglected.
The adoption of the technology could displace an estimated 2 billion jobs by 2030. Up to 47 percent of jobs in the United States could be threatened by computerization over the next 20 years. That figure could reach 85% in emerging markets, BofA Securities said.
Emerging markets such as India and China are most at risk of skills disruption due to this trend, according to the report.
Ethiopia, Cambodia and Bangladesh are the three countries most at risk of automation, as the majority of the work done in these countries can be done by robots.
“The most worrying trend is that emerging market jobs are most at risk of automation due to the low- to mid-skilled nature of sectors such as manufacturing, highlighting the risk of ‘premature deindustrialization’ . “
Premature deindustrialization refers to a situation in which countries reach a peak of production before sufficiently crossing the economic development curve.
“Economic history tells us that the traditional route to prosperity has been for countries to move from an agrarian economy to manufacturing to industrialization, for example the UK in the early 19th century, the states -United at the end of the 19th century and, more recently, China at the turn of the 20th century, ”the report says.
Bypassing industrialization could lead to the displacement of manual labor as automation becomes more sophisticated.