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Written by Cameron Micallef on 14 June 2019
A major new report into the future of robotics in the workplace have been released, outlining what role automation will play in the future of Australian jobs.
Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and driverless cars will certainly affect the tasks we do, but they will create as many jobs as they kill. It’s just that the ones they take will be easily spotted, while the jobs they create will not be in plain sight.
Automation creates a $36 billion lift
If Australians embrace the robotic revolution and move towards automation nationally, it will get a $36 billion dollar payoff by 2030, according to new research by Deloitte’s Access Economics.
This $36 billion dollar shift in national income is the difference between Australia remaining in the top echelon of world living standards or slipping back as a nation.
Changing work environment
Self-driving cars, 3D printers and robotics are causing large-scale changes in a wide range of jobs as people move away from manual-intensive tasks.
According to Deloitte, employers will need employees with skills that combine head and heart, from coding to customer service and experience in resolving conflicts.
How adaptable are employees?
The new trends are happening so fast, they’re catching workers, government and businesses by surprise. At the start of this decade, the typical worker lacked 1.2 critical skills needed for a new position.
Deloitte suggested that today the average worker is missing around two of the 18 critical skills that are advertised for a job, with this gap predicted to grow.
In Australia today, 96 per cent of jobs require management and organisation skills, 97 per cent require customer service skills and 70 per cent require verbal communication skills.
In conjunction with these “heart” skills, Australian employers want 3 million more people with digital literacy skills than are currently available, which is dwarfed by the 5.3 million missing workers with customer service skills.
