Many people fear robots will take their job

This undated photo provided by OpenAI shows a robotic hand rotating a cube at the company's research lab in San Francisco. The hand, called Dactyl, has a single job, and that’s to rotate a cube until the letter facing up matches a random selection. (Eric Louis Haines/OpenAI via AP)

Four out of ten are afraid that robots and digitization will take their job from them shows the latest YS workload barometer.

 

43% said they think new technology could take over parts or most of their work tasks. That is 13% more than just two years ago.

“It is clear that we are beginning to get an eye on the consequences of technology development. Norway has a sophisticated economy,and the time for the simple and manual tasks is far over,” said Jorunn Berland, head of the Labour Organization’s Central Federation (JS) to NTB news.

The barometer will be published in its entirety on Tuesday during Arendalsuka. It is tenth consecutive year that YS has measured the state of working life.

In the spotlight

The robot’s onward march and digitization have gained a lot of attention in recent years. In addition, a number of industries, such as the banking and finance industry, have experienced real changes. This is probably the reason why more people fear becoming redundant, YS believes.

At the same time, not all industries are affected, and more than 55% answered “no” to the question of whether the work can be carried out by a machine.

“Although machines or robots will most likely be able to perform many tasks in the future, we will still need people and hands in the workplace,” said Berland.

But in the postal service, there may soon be less people and hands needed.In Arendal, Norway Post will launch the world’s first self-driving letter and packet robot.

Separating Lines

Those who are older and those with less education are a little more likely to think that their jobs can not be taken over by technology, than young people and those with more education showed the barometer.

Public sector employees also feel safer in their jobs than those in the private sector.

However, in the banking, insurance and financial industry, three out of four fear that digitization will affect their jobs.

“We often talk about the simple jobs when discussing robotization, but it’s about more than that,” said Berland.

More advanced

Many types of work tasks, including the most advanced, will eventually be resolved digitally, she argued.

‘’Surgery is a good example of this’’.

The Labour Research Institute prepared the Labour Barometer on behalf of YS. This year, more than 3,000 workers participated in the survey, as well as nearly 1,900 people who, for various reasons, are out of work.

The barometer also showed that close to four out of ten part-time employees want to work more, wrote Dagsavisen newspaper. 19% of part-time employees want full employment, while 17.8% want to work more, but not full-time.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today