Five Aussie jobs that will be automated in 10 years

A new Future of Australian Jobs Report has predicted which vocations are most likely to be automated within the next 10 years. Yikes.

The data has been generated by Pearson‘s workforce data and analytics platform Faethm. Pearson is an AI and tech company that specialises in learning and education productions.

According to the company, Faethm “analyses billions of data points to make AI-powered predictions of the future of jobs and skills”.

For this report it utilised S-curve modelled predictions of several jobs and professions against the number of full-time-equivalent roles within that sector in Australia.

Which Australian jobs are most likely to be automated in the near future?

According to the report, these jobs are most likely to be automated in the next 10 years. The percentage represents the amount that automation is predicted to replace the full time equivalent (FTE) held by a human.

1. Legal secretary — 59.58%
2. Finance broker — 59.2%
3. Pharmacy technician — 58.61%
4. Medical receptionist — 57.99%
5. Insurance consultant — 56.34%

But the list didn’t stop there. Some other interesting callouts included:

• Aeroplane pilot — 36.55%
• Medical laboratory scientist — 35%
• Stockbroking dealer — 34.01%
• Accountants and auditors — 32.03%
• Meteorologist — 29%
• Sales workers — 29%
• Road traffic controller — 24%

“Our modelling shows that economic growth will still drive the need for occupations, however, the nature of jobs will quickly evolve as tasks are both automated and augmented by technology and this will impact future demand,” the report reads.

This can be an opportunity for businesses

But the report isn’t all doom and gloom when it comes to robots taking our jobs. It uses the data to encourage companies to plan strategically for the future.

“New technology has always changed the nature of work; however, there has never been a time when so many roles have been under threat at once. The pace of change is now exponential; we have a unique opportunity to embrace technological change — and shape its impact on our employees and workplaces — rather than simply react to it as it happens,” the report reads.

It also quotes from findings in the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Future of Jobs report.

“Companies which proactively address impending technological disruption are three times more likely to improve their market share over their competitors in the same industry. These organisations also perform twice as well on average compared with their peers overall.”

Advice for businesses moving forward

The report also offers council on how businesses, HR and hiring managers can approach this huge technological shift to benefit their company and employees.

“As the labour market shifts there will not be enough talent with the right skills. Companies, therefore, need to rethink recruitment and retention strategies and allow for reskilling and role repositioning,” the report said.

It goes onto use accountants as a case study, arguing that there are transferable skills that are applicable to other careers, such as cybersecurity. This includes accuracy, information processing and monitoring and assessing performance.

Obviously this example is quite apt considering the deluge of Optus data breach news this week.

However, the report also points out that more is needed to build on transferrable skills to close technical and knowledge gaps.

Here’s an overview of the advice the report offers:

• Start small-scale;
• Establish a multi-functional team;
• Embrace technology solutions;
• Plan ahead of time; and
• Engage and empower your people.