A recent common phrase is that “robots are taking our jobs” and for some, this has caused fear. While it would be entertaining having a robot cleaning your hotel room, drive your taxi, or serve your food to your table, literal robots are not likely to be taking place over actual human beings. But, automation of certain tasks within jobs is a reality that has already shifted into place.
While saying that robots are taking our jobs does sound scary, it is simply false that automation is taking over certain tasks in the workforce. In fact, it is doing the opposite of taking over jobs; it is helping to create jobs. In between the years of 2018 to 2022, automation actually created approximately 133 million new roles.
More time to Develop Skills
There has been a demand in the workforce for more upskilled employees, but when employees are spending their time on tedious, time-consuming tasks, there isn’t much time left to develop those skills. When those tasks are taken off their plate and handled automatically, they can improve these skills and further drive growth for the company.
Increased Productivity
While tasks are being automatically completed in the background, employees are able to work on better, oftentimes more strategic business objectives. They waste less time on the manual work and catching/ fixing errors that comes from human error in the manual process. With more getting accomplished in the same time, businesses see an increase in demand, which in turn results in the need for more personnel.
Greater Margins
With the increase in productivity, more products can be produced in the same time frame, resulting in less labor costs. The data pulled from automation can assist as well in finding trends of inefficiencies throughout the production process, helping to lower the time and cost of development even further. As companies improve their margins and gross revenue, they are able to invest more into hiring new staff.
Overall Growth in GDP
With automation, it is anticipated that by 2030 there will be a $15.7 Trillion, or 26% increase in global GDP, with 40% being attributed to increased productivity while the other 60% will be attributed to growth in consumption. At the same time, labor productivity is anticipated to grow at a slower rate of 1.1% YoY. As long as GDP exceeds growth labor productivity growth, employment will rise.
Instead of fearing the future of automation, it helps to look at all of the benefits that it can bring to organizations’ productivity and an overall increase in available jobs.
