#WEF2017: Job-stealing robots a concern

Panasonic's prototype delivery robot, HOSPI, designed to serve bottled beverages and provide bus information, is pictured at a hotel near Narita International Airport in Narita

Panasonic's prototype delivery robot, HOSPI, designed to serve bottled beverages and provide bus information, is pictured at a hotel near Narita International Airport in Narita

Published Jan 21, 2017

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Davos - Open markets and

global trade have been blamed for job losses over the last

decade, but global CEOs say the real culprits are increasingly

machines.

And while business leaders gathered at the annual World

Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos relish the productivity gains

technology can bring, they warned this week that the collateral

damage to jobs needs to be addressed more seriously.

From taxi drivers to healthcare professionals, technologies

such as robotics, driverless cars, artificial intelligence and

3-D printing mean more and more types of jobs are at risk.

Adidas, for example, aims to use 3-D printing in

the manufacture of some running shoes.

"Jobs will be lost, jobs will evolve and this revolution is

going to be ageless, it's going to be classless and it's going

to affect everyone," said Meg Whitman, chief executive of

Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

So while some supporters of Donald Trump and Brexit may hope

new government policies will bring lost jobs back to America's

Rust Belt or Britain's industrial north, economists estimate 86

percent of US manufacturing job losses are actually down to

productivity, according to the WEF's annual risks report.

"Technology is the big issue and we don't acknowledge that,"

Mark Weinberger, chairman of consultancy EY, said on Thursday,

arguing there was a tendency to always blame trading partners.

Read also:  LISTEN: Robots are here for your job

The political backdrop is prompting CEOs to take more

seriously the challenge of long-life training of workforces to

keep up with the exponential growth of technological advances.

"I think what we're reaching now is a time when we may have

to find alternative careers through our lifetime," Microsoft

Chief Executive Satya Nadella told Reuters.

Over the last decade, more jobs have been lost to technology

than any other factor, and John Drzik, head of global risk at

insurance broker Marsh, expects more of the same.

"That is going to raise challenges, particularly given the

political context," Drzik, who helped compile the WEF report,

said.

Compared to clamping down on immigration by tightening

borders, dealing with the impact of technology destroying jobs

is something that is perhaps even less easily controlled.

For while many advanced technologies remain more expensive

than low- or medium-skilled labour in the near term, the shift

is likely to accelerate as costs come down.

Widening gap

Technological advancements require governments, businesses

and academic institutions to develop more educated and highly

skilled workforces, executives in Davos said.

But this shift to skilled workers also widens the income gap

and fuels growing inequality.

Jonas Prising, CEO of staffing firm ManpowerGroup,

noted that U.S. unemployment is only about 2 to 2.5 percent

among college-educated people but 9 or 10 percent among those

with low or no skills.

"The idea that we would ban automation as part of an

evolution within the manufacturing industry, is not really part

of the discussion," Prising said.

He pointed to policies in countries like Denmark and Italy,

where there is a focus on employability of workers.

"If we don't own responsibility (for the problem of

displaced workers), it's only going to get bigger," Procter &

Gamble Chief Executive David Taylor said.

Brawn and brain

The scope of the employment risk from what the WEF calls the

"fourth industrial revolution" which "blurs the lines between

the physical, digital, and biological spheres" is unclear.

A University of Oxford study in 2013 said nearly half of

US jobs were at risk, while in 2015 Forrester Research

predicted a net loss of only 7 percent by 2025, as some lost

jobs will be replaced with new ones.

Forrester predicts that by 2019, one-quarter of all job

tasks will be offloaded to software robots, physical robots, or

customer self-service automation.

Even the corner office may not be safe.

"CEOs feel reasonably confident we are not going to be

replaced by artificial intelligence," Inga Beale, CEO of the

Lloyd's of London insurance market, said.

"But I'm sure there will be a time!"

REUTERS

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