The increase in automation would cause a reduction of 48 per cent workforce in world’s supply chain and transport industry.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) raised the alarm in a Future of Jobs Report 2018 obtained through a survey of WEF members all over the world.

“Global labour markets are undergoing major transformations due to technological breakthroughs.

“Four specific technological advances would drive change; ubiquitous high-speed mobile internet; artificial intelligence; widespread adoption of big data analytics; and cloud technology.

“These changes if managed wisely, could lead to an era of good work, good jobs and improved quality of life for all. Otherwise, it could pose the risk of widening skills gaps, greater inequality and broader polarization.

“In the supply chain and transport industry, it is expected that this change on the workforce it would cause a reduction of 48%.”

Other changes projected for the industry include a modification of the value chain by 82%, modification of locations of operation by 42% and expansion of task specialized contractors by 52%.

The report added that the technological changes were set to dominate the 2018–2022 period as drivers of business growth.

It also projected a decline for certain job roles across the automotive, aerospace and supply chain and transport industries by 41% in 2018.

The affected jobs include transportation attendants and conductors, client information and customer service workers, data entry clerks, material recording and stock keeping clerks and assembly and factory workers, among others.

By 2022, the report added that said roles would decline by 16%.

It also indicated the relative change in contribution by human workers and machines to specific task roles, attributing the reduction in the relative share of task hours contributed to a specific task by human workers to increased machine productivity over the 2018–2022 period.

“The expected decline is due to emerging roles such as supply chain and logistics specialists, service and solution designers, process automation specialists, data analysts and scientists, innovation professionals, and artificial intelligence and machine learning specialists.

These new roles are expected to increase in demand by 8% in 2018 and 21% in 2022.

“Certain key job tasks in 2018 would more and more be executed by machines.

These include communicating and interacting which would increase from 17% performance in 2018 is to 25% in 2022; performing complex and technical activities which would increase from 21% in 2018 to 36% in 2022; and the execution of physical and manual work which as of 2018 is at 31% to 48% in 2022,” the report said.

The report conducted on 15,126,280 employees worldwide, cuts across 12 industry groups which include Automotive, Aerospace, Supply Chain & Transport; Aviation, Travel &Tourism; Chemistry, Advanced Materials and Biotechnology.

Others are Consumer; Energy Utilities and Technology; Financial Services and Investors; Global Health and Healthcare; Information and Communication Technology; Infrastructure; Mining and Metals; Oil and Gas; and Professional Services. (NAN)

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