Automation: Almost 50% of American jobs to dissappear

One of the key drivers for Donald Trump’s shock victory during the U.S. election has been an anxiety about job security and the changes that the globalized economy has made across the globe. President Elect Trump capitalized on a ground-swell of dissatisfaction that middle-class Americans felt about stagnating wages and rapidly shrinking job opportunities, stoking anger at illegal immigrants that have “stolen jobs”.

But there’s a greater shift occurring across the world thanks to the rapid advances in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

Jobs that left American shores for Chinese factories are disappearing as the cost of robotic labor becomes even cheaper than the rock-bottom wages in foreign sweat-shops.

This is not a uniquely American problem either. 49% of the Japanese workforce, and 35% of the British workforce have been identified as vulnerable to automation, a trend that is mirrored across the developed world.

47% of American jobs are at high risk of automation over the next two decades according to the highly cited study by Carl Benedikt and Michael Osbourne in 2013.

Transport jobs will be almost entirely replaced by self-driving vehicles over the coming decade. In 2014 the industry employed more than 4 million Americans including;

1.6 million truck drivers,
800,000 delivery truck drivers,
180.000 taxi drivers,
160,000 Uber drivers,
500,000 school bus drivers,
160,000 transit drivers

Sales and Services jobs will continue to be bit into by self-service checkouts and automated sales programs.

Support office staff can expect menial jobs such as data entry to dwindle as artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated.

Rural jobs are at particular risk, with 60% of regional jobs at risk of automation in Australia for instance, as the efficiency and ability of machines and robots allows fewer workers to service a broader area.

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