Will new jobs emerge as automation takes over?

Will automation create as many jobs as it renders obsolete? Either way, the spectre of severe societal consequences looms, and low-skilled workers will end up shouldering the greatest burden. From ordering your food on a tablet today, to one day having your online shopping transported in a self-driving truck—the digital age is transforming the nature of work, but so far it hasn’t translated into many more jobs for humans. That was one theme that emerged from the Technology at Work Report released by the Oxford Martin School and Citi this year. The accommodation and food services sector is expected to be hardest hit, with as many as 87 per cent of US workers at high risk of being replaced by automation, the report found. Transportation and warehousing, real estate, and retail trade follow close behind, each with at least two-thirds of the workforce at high risk. These numbers have been reinforced in a recent research paper by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), which warned that in Australia, 40 per cent of jobs could go—a figure that rises to 60 per cent in regional areas