Increasing automation sparks job loss fears

Australians are afraid of robots stealing their jobs, according to new research.

Airtasker’s latest ‘Future of work’ study shows that 16% of those surveyed believe their job will be made redundant during the next five years due to automation.

The study was undertaken by research firm Pureprofile, which polled a representative sample of 1003 Australians. According to the findings, 71% of the population believes that machines will take more jobs than they create.

“There seems to be some fear in Australia around machines replacing jobs, and this is the first study which quantifies it,” said Airtasker CEO Tim Fung.

“There’s no doubt that digital disruption is displacing some jobs, but Airtasker’s experience is that technology is absolutely creating new industries and jobs that we haven’t seen before.”

ABS data shows that despite the rise of various efficiency-driving technologies over the past decade, total jobs have continued to grow.

Meanwhile, almost one in 10 Australians indicated that they are leveraging the sharing economy to earn extra income. The amount of Australians indicating this nearly doubled from the result seen in Airtasker’s 2016 Future of Work study. 

“We think there’s some work to be done to increase awareness of the new job opportunities and industries being created through technology platforms, including the sharing economy,” said Fung.

“We should also be doing more to measure the new types of jobs being created as technology fundamentally changes the way we work.”

The study also revealed that around 40% of Australians see human interaction to be the main factor that will prevent more roles from being automated. Of all industries, those working in education are the most optimistic that machines will create more jobs than they replace.

Those aged between 25 and 34 are the most concerned that their job will be made obsolete by automation within the next five years. However, the same age group is also the most hopeful that machines will create new industries and more jobs than they replace.

As part of the ongoing study, Airtasker has measured the growth and use of the sharing economy trend. Up to 85% of those surveyed working in hospitality or construction said they would leverage the sharing economy to earn extra income in 2017.

The percentage of Australians saying they use the sharing economy to earn extra money has increased by roughly half, from 6.1% in 2016 to 9.7% now.

The number of Australians using the sharing economy also increased from 26% in 2016 to 28.8% in 2017.

Image credit: ©Vladislav Ociacia/Dollar Photo Club

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