American workers have been hearing rumors for years that automation processes – in other words, robots – were being built that would one day replace them. While we most often pictures automation taking over car production lines and factory machines, a robot could conceivably be built to do nearly anything a human could – although we’d wager that the calendars featuring bare-chested robot firemen won’t ever sell as well as the ones with the human firemen did. Jesting aside, we’re curious to see how fears of replacement by robot affects people from different economic and social strata. Respondents from jobs of all stripes were asked, “Do you think your job could be replaced by a robot in the next 10 years?”
The information comes from the latest reading of an ongoing study by Comparably. Over 10,000 employees responded to the question.
Nearly three-quarters of women and four-fifths of men feel sure that their jobs will not be relegated to robot workers over the next ten years. Males, more confident in an American workplace that has long favored them, may have grown to feel that replacing them is impossible.
African-Americans, perhaps conditioned to presuming they’ll be dealt to from the bottom of the deck in this country after multiple centuries of inequality, are much less secure that their jobs are safe from cheaper robot workers. The same can perhaps be said, to a lesser degree, of Hispanic or Latino respondents. Asian/Pacific Islanders and Caucasians felt much more secure in their futures, aligning closely with overall male votes.
Fears of automation taking more and more jobs away from humans seems to drop with age. The youngest respondents, who grew up in a world already saturated with technological shortcuts, seem to see a robotic future as somewhat inevitable. As respondents age past their early 40s, concern about a robot-heavy future drops to the to 20% and lower. This may reflect older respondents replying from a place of greater experience of such “doomsday” threats not coming to fruition.
Fear of automation stealing jobs from living humans seems also to drop with education level. Those reporting just a high school degree responded that they were afraid of being replaced within ten years to the tune of 40%. Those workers may also be employed in more menial jobs that could conceivably become automated in the near future. Those with some college or an Associate’s degree replied similarly around 30%, and only around 20% of those with a Bachelor’s feared robots were on their way, implying that their most substantial education might lead to more security about mankind making healthy choices about its future.
Just 15% of those who have worked for 10 years or more fear that robots are coming for their jobs. This may be because they feel that their accumulated time on the job makes them more valuable than any non-human replacement. Less-secure are those working entry-level jobs, 27% of who figured the automation revolution would eventually put a crimp in their livelihood.
Respondents from most major metros are mostly unconcerned about automation ending their careers over the next decade. Only ten percentage points separates San Francisco, the city where the most respondents are secure that their jobs were safe from robots, from Atlanta, the metro with the most anxiety about job security in the face of looming automation technology.
Only 16% of executives feel their job could potentially be threatened by robotics over the next decade. Executives are surely a group who feel their individual, irreplacable value perhaps more than a worker who has not risen to the top. Resondents from HR also kept their worries to 16%, perhaps not surprising as their job title begins with “human.” On the other hand, workers in customer support – a role that many could conceive of being handled by an AI, true or otherwise – were more trepidatious about the security of their jobs.
Latest reading as of January 2.
