We’re seeing a big push for automation in the United States. Manufacturing increasingly relies on industrial motion control systems and less on human workers. We’re seeing a growing number of automated vehicles on U.S. roads. Just recently, Uber rolled out automated transportation services in Pittsburgh. We’re replacing cashiers with self-checkouts, servers with tablets, and pizza makers with robots that can make pizzas. While some view increased automation as a good thing, others worry about automation displacing human workers. Regardless of whether you have a positive or a negative view of automation, there’s no denying that automation is growing in importance, capability, and application at a rapid rate. This automation boom isn’t specific to the United States, however. Automation is growing across the globe.
A recent study by Oxford University and a business advisory firm suggests the U.K. could see a huge increase in job automation in less than 15 years.
The future of automation in the U.K.
According to the study, as many as 850,000 public sector jobs in the U.K. could become automated by 2030. Additionally, 1.3 million administrative jobs in the public sector have a 77% likelihood of being automated. Again, it’s the highly repetitive jobs that are at risk. Simple, repetitive tasks are the easiest to automate. Clerical work, jobs in transportation, data analysis, and service industry jobs are more likely to become automated than jobs that require more skill and education.
As anyone who works in manufacturing will tell you, there are clear advantages to automation. Efficiency, reliability, and cost are just a few of the highlight benefits of automation. If the study’s predictions are true, the U.K. will save more than $14.7 billion in public sector wages by 2030.
Is more automation good or bad?
This is a popular question these days, but it’s a question with no easy answer. History shows us that automation does displace workers, but it also creates new jobs. Of course, the new argument is that we’ve never experienced this level of automation at such a fast rate. While it’s fun to take a stance and speculate, we really won’t know how automation will affect the work force until we have some tangible data.
Automation isn’t going away anytime soon. Make sure you’re ready to stay in the game in an increasingly automated world. We’re centrally located to provide Indramat service to all of North America. Outside of North America? No problem. We ship worldwide! Contact us today for more information about Indramat service, repair, or Indramat parts!