Fear thy Robot: Chances of Workers Being Replaced by Automation Vary by Country

Automation still mostly threatens those working in low or semi-skilled professions. However, the more digital technology advances, the more high-skilled labor is likely to fall prey to this process. “Jobs in transportation, logistics, as well as office and administrative support, are among the most susceptible,” the GPS: Global Perspectives & Solutions report by the Citigroup states.

The same goes for countries: As the chart below shows, some are more threatened by automation than others. While in the US 47 percent of the workforce is at risk of being replaced by automation, there are far more jobs at stake in China (77 percent) and India (69 percent) whose economies have big manufacturing sectors. And then there is Ethiopia, who leads the list. 85 percent of jobs are at risk there, mostly due to efforts to industrialize the agricultural sector.

The good news is that there is still work to go around in professions that are harder to replace by robots and algorithms. Those jobs require creative and social intelligence, including management, business, arts and media, as well as jobs in education and healthcare. “Importantly, the expanding scope of automation is not suggestive of the end of work, as has been proclaimed by several commentators and scholars,” the authors of the Citigroup report conclude.