In the real-world saga of humans vs. robots, many companies have put their money on the bots, according to a new survey conducted by
More than 20% of the 2,000 hiring managers and HR professionals surveyed reported having replaced workers with automated technologies. That percentage rises to 30--nearly one third--in companies with more than 500 employees.
Sixty-eight percent of those that have substituted automation processes for staff say they've also created new positions as a result of new workplace technologies and 35% of companies reported creating more jobs than they had been prior to automation.
The downside? It's unlikely the jobs created will be filled by the employees whose positions were eliminated.
Perhaps the greatest example of this dynamic cited is that of data automation. Data Entry Keyers, a $14 per hour job, lost more 43,000 jobs from 2002 to 2014--a 16% decline. Simultaneously, the growth of "big data" operations created demand for people with the skills to interpret and utilize data. Over the same time period, Market Research Analysts added nearly 100,000 jobs, a 28% increase.
The travel industry saw a similar trend emerge as websites like Orbitz and
Perhaps the one ray of light for workers who've found themselves replaced by a series of ones and zeros?
Thirty-five percent of companies that eliminated workers in favor of technology ended up hiring people back "because the technology didn't work out."
The top three industries to have "deskilled" workers--the process of replacing humans with automated technologies--are information technology, financial services, and manufacturing, though workers have been affected by this process across numerous industries.
And consumers already frustrated by never being able to reach a human employee when they call a company for assistance should prepare for the worst: The fields most likely to be impacted over the next decade are customer service, IT, accounting and finance, assembly and production, shipping and distribution, and sales.
