Last week’s poll: automation, Industry 4.0 and employment

The Engineer’s Industry 4.0 week focussed on the opportunities that IoT will bring, but the downside to this upsurge in automation is its effect on the jobs market.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed at the Office of National Statistics, which looked at the jobs of 20 million people and concluded that that 7.4 per cent were at high risk of being replaced by automation.

As reported last week, the  ONS has also produced a “bot” to predict which jobs are most at risk, and says that overall, women, young people and those who work part-time are most likely to be at risk from automation.

Waiters, shelf-stackers, bar staff, plus kitchen and catering assistants are some of the jobs most likely to be lost to automation, so not much of a threat to the engineering profession.

But what will the overall trend be outside of these occupations? Will automation reduce employment levels in engineering or increase the number of people employed by the sector? Will employment levels remain static with some skilled positions becoming redundant? Last week’s poll results show that 40 per cent of respondents favour the latter view, followed by 32 per cent who foresee a net fall in employment. A fifth (20 per cent) of the poll believes automation will lead to a net rise in employment, and eight per cent opted for ‘none of the above’.