Tech boon to cut 5m jobs: report
More than five million of Australia’s jobs could disappear within the next 15 years as technology revolutionises our working lives, a report to be released today shows.
Commissioned by the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, the report suggests almost 40 per cent of workers will have find a new job or learn skills to make them employable in the near future.
The job loss rate could be much higher in rural and regional areas as technology makes labour-intensive work redundant.
Some of the worst hit parts of the country will be in WA’s Pilbara and eastern desert regions. But parts of the Wheatbelt will be among the least affected parts of the country.
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The report examined the probability of job losses because of computers or automation across every council in the country.
CEDA chief executive Stephen Martin said while there would be massive changes in employment over coming years that did not mean mass unemployment.
Innovation and better skills would help Australians adapt to change.
However, if Australia fails to grasp potential change then many people would face life without a job.
“The pace of technological advancement in the last 20 years has been unprecedented and that pace is likely to continue for the next 20 years,” he said.
“While we have seen automation replace some jobs in areas such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing, other areas where we are likely to see change are, for example, the health sector, which to date has remained largely untouched by technological change,” he said.
Prof Martin said business, educational facilities and governments all had a role in boosting innovation levels to ensure people had jobs in the future.
He said other countries had lifted their investment in preparing for technological change. If Australia did not, the country would be left behind.
“Our labour market will be fundamentally reshaped by the scope and breadth of technological change, and if we do not embrace massive economic reform and focus on incentivising innovation, we will simply be left behind in an increasingly competitive global marketplace,” he said.
