Question: Driverless cars are being tested, and one Australian mine already uses robotic dump trucks. Taxi driver and truck driver jobs’ days may be numbered. In addition, Microsoft founder Bill Gates raised concerns in March that people underestimate the number of jobs to be lost to “software substitution.”
What does this mean for the staffing industry?
Answer: Some 63 percent of all temporary agency jobs are at high risk of computerization over the next 10 to 20 years. Staffing Industry Analysts estimates this based on information in the report “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?” published in September 2013 by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, two Oxford University academics. Commercial staffing is at much higher overall risk than professional staffing, with the exception of finance/accounting staffing, which is also at high risk.
But not all is bleak. Employers may turn to flexible labor more as the work environment becomes more automated. In addition, staffing firms of the future may provide more automated solutions themselves in addition to human work solutions.
Corporate members of Staffing Industry Analysts can download the full report at www.staffingindustry.com.
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