The Digitalisation of the Workforce in a Post Pandemic World
The Coronavirus pandemic has reignited discussion of what the future holds for automation of the workforce.
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According to a 2019 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, 32% of Australian jobs are at high risk of automation. The pandemic has revealed a new case for automation.
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QUT Robotics Professor and ARMED technical director, Jonathan Roberts spoke to the necessity of automating industries,
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“Australia has decided that they need to be more self-sufficient...
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it’s not great to rely on globalisation to supply everything.
I guess this is a demonstration of what happens when the supply lines do stop...
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“One of the things that I think will happen is for Australia to make some of the things they need to make, they will use automation to make them.”
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But the question remains, who will this change having lasting effects on?
There are an estimated five million jobs in Australia at moderate to high risk of automation according to a CEDA report.
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The most at risk job is construction and mining labour.
After labourers, food preparation assistants and cleaners and laundry workers are most at risk of automation.
However, Mr Roberts said this isn’t necessarily a bad thing,
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“There’s lots of example in history (of automation), the car is a great one. In about 10-15 years 90% of the world’s horses disappeared, and all the associated jobs; stable hands, saddle makers.
All that stuff just disappeared. But then mechanics came in. I think a lot of these crappier jobs will disappear but new ones will appear in their place.”
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The OECD findings report that the most affected groups will be lower-skilled workers, young people and those with less than territory education.
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Mr Roberts believes that these workers will still be as in demand as ever, once Australia becomes more automated,
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“Many of the things that haven’t been automated yet, the reason they haven’t yet because they are quite difficult and it’s hard to automate them.
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So we’re not convinced that automation will eliminate all the jobs.
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We’ll need those workers. They’ll use the robots as a tool to do their job, rather than doing it manually.”
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There is no doubt that the digital post-pandemic world will see changes in the workforce.
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OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria stated "In the digital era, it is important that people feel that they will be supported if they lose out, and helped in their search for new and better opportunities,"
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