News

23/03/23

How will robotics impact on the jobs market?

Back in March 2019, as we entered into the Pandemic, the Office for National Statistics reported that 1.5 million jobs could be lost to automation, that’s 7.4% of the workforce that could find their existing jobs automated.

The figures suggest that women, young people and part time workers are likely to be the most affected and we can already see this happening in the retail sector with self-service tills in super markets and some of the major high street stores, in the high street banks with closures and the move to online banking and the branches no longer having tellers.

So far it is the repetitive tasks that will be taken over by algorithms and automation and the projections are that this will change and grow as the technology improves.

As the birth rate reduces in the UK and the population lives longer, there will be a need to automate more jobs, as we won’t have a large enough workforce to support the needs of the country.

The UK is currently ranked 9th on the global stage for manufacturing and punches well above its weight for the size of population, the issue that could impact on that place over the coming years is the slow pace at which UK manufacturers are adopting industrial automation. Asia remains the leader for industrial robotics, Japan remains second to China and then followed by The Republic of  Korea.

Robot installations were up in Europe 24% in 2021 with Germany and Italy leading the way, with the UK lagging behind with as little as 7% of the size of the German market.

The UK manufacturing sectors currently employs 2.7million workers, so the impact on lost production could be immense, we need to invest in technology and keep up with our global competitors.

Our team of recruiters in our Romford offices are skilled in sourcing and placing workers in the Essex and London industrial centres and if you are in need of new members of the workplace, get in touch for a free consultation.