The Robots Could Be Coming for 800 Million Jobs

As many as 800 million people around the world could find themselves out of a job by 2030 thanks to automation, according to a new study from the McKinsey Global Institute.

“In absolute terms, China faces the largest number of workers needing to switch occupations -- up to 100 million if automation is adopted rapidly, or 12 percent of the 2030 workforce -- although this figure is relatively small compared with the huge shift in China out of agriculture in the past 25 years,” the report says. “For advanced economies, the share of the workforce that may need to learn new skills and find work in new occupations is much higher: up to one-third of the 2030 workforce in the United States and Germany, and nearly half in Japan.”

But the outlook is by no means all gloomy: “If history is any guide, we could also expect that 8 to 9 percent of 2030 labor demand will be in new types of occupations that have not existed before.

“…[W]ith sufficient economic growth, innovation, and investment, there can be enough new job creation to offset the impact of automation, although in some advanced economies additional investments will be needed…”

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