World – Rise of workplace robots could create nearly double the jobs they replace, study finds

The rise of AI, robots and machine learning is expected to created 133 million new jobs by 2022 compared to 75 million that will be displaced, according to a global study from the World Economic Forum (WEF).

WEF’s research, published in the ‘Future of Jobs 2018’ report also found that by 2025 more than half of all current workplace tasks will be performed by machines as opposed to 29% today.

The research is based on a survey of chief HR officers and top strategy executives from companies across 12 industries and 20 developed and emerging economies (which collectively account for 70% of global GDP).

Compared to a similar study by the WEF in 2016 to understand the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on jobs, the outlook for job creation today is much more positive as businesses have a much greater understanding of the opportunities made available by technology.

According to the report, 54% of employees of large companies would need significant re- and up-skilling in order to fully harness the growth opportunities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the same time, just over half of the companies surveyed said they planned to reskill only those employees that are in key roles while only one third planned to reskill at-risk workers.

“It is critical that business take an active role in supporting their existing workforces through reskilling and upskilling, that individuals take a proactive approach to their own lifelong learning, and that governments create an enabling environment to facilitate this workforce transformation. This is the key challenge of our time,” Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, said.

All industries expect to have sizable skills gaps, with the Aviation, Travel & Tourism industry projected to have the highest reskilling needs in the 2018-2022 timeframe.

Meanwhile, the report found that across all countries and regions, employers expect that significant reskilling will be needed by a large share of the global workforce over the 2018-2022 period.

Furthermore, while nearly 50% of all companies expect their full-time workforce to shrink by 2022 as a result of automation, almost 40% expect to extend their workforce generally and more than a quarter expect automation to create new roles in their enterprise.

“While we expect net positive job growth, there will be a significant shift in the quality, location, format and permanency of new roles. In fact, businesses are set to expand their use of contractors doing task-specialized work, engage workers in more flexible arrangements, use remote staffing, and modify the locations where their organization operates to ensure access to talent,” the report stated.

Source:: http://www2.staffingindustry.com/row/Editorial/Daily-News/World-Rise-of-workplace-robots-could-create-nearly-double-the-jobs-they-replace-study-finds-47416