Dive Brief:
- A new study found that robots could almost as easily replace millennials as boomers on the job, writes The Washington Post. About 50% of millennials are interested in jobs robots could take over, such as those with a predictable routine and/or repetitive tasks, study results show.
- Jobs with some protection against robot takeovers require some form of human interaction with less predictability, according to the study. Medical, creative and managerial jobs fall in this category.
- Daniel Culbertson, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab and author of the report, told the Post that even a college degree can’t protect workers from being replaced by robots.
Dive Insight:
Changes in the way work gets done are ever-evolving, and automation is one slice of that evolution. Robots have already replaced humans in some industries, cutting operations and payroll costs for businesses. Not even white-collar jobs are completely safe, as the Post and other observers are quick to point out.
HR professionals are seeing these changes in their day-to-day business, using chatbots and algorithms to simplify the recruiting process. Additional concerns around artificial intelligence have prompted leading tech companies to develop their own partnerships on AI.
Businesses should identify early which jobs could be automated, giving employees in those positions access to beefed-up learning programs that can prepare them for in-demand careers. There are plenty of jobs that go unfilled due to the lack of appropriate skilling among the general workforce. Automation provides perhaps the strongest reason for employers to support career development and training for younger workers.
