Robots To Blame: 3 Mln Workers Are Under Threat In Italy

The fourth or the fifth industrial revolution, according to some experts, will lead to a significant employment reduction in the traditional sectors. According to OSCE experts, 15.2% of job opportunities will be lost. Meanwhile, every third working place will undergo significant changes in terms of qualifications, job duties, functionality and remuneration. Today we are going to talk about radical and unforeseen changes in the labour market.

Robotization is to blame for it all. According to the report of Club Ambrosetti, think tank of Italian industrialists and entrepreneurs, the reduction of 3 mln jobs is going to happen in another 15 years. However, this is an optimistic forecast, while a pessimistic one predicts a loss of 4.3 mln jobs. The most affected sectors are the manufacturing industry (840,000), trade (602,000), real estate (302,000), agriculture and fishery (225,000) and construction (205,000).

The infestation of robots and artificial intelligence will displace unskilled or low-skilled workers with a low level of education. For highly skilled workers with higher education and particularly with a high degree of specialization, the risk of losing jobs caused by the robotization is rather small.

According to OSCE experts, the main problem of Italy is “skill mismatch” — the mismatch of qualifications or skills with the requirements of work. This gap is very large. On this indicator, Italy is last on the list of European countries, and it is followed by, Spain, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Austria (on an increasing scale).

Nevertheless, Italian enterprises are optimistic as almost 90% of them are confident that artificial intelligence cannot completely replace humans in the workplace. 60% of enterprises are ready to introduce artificial intelligence systems on their own initiative in order to increase production efficiency.

Another 77% of entrepreneurs believe that artificial intelligence will create new working places with previously unknown professions and positions. Only 11% of entrepreneurs take an extremely hostile position against innovations.

According to the estimates of the Italian Union of Industrialists (Confindustria), by the year 2021, 195,000 job opportunities will be created in the six Italian key sectors: information technology, mechanics, chemistry, textile production/clothing, food processing and woodworking/production furniture.

Article by Vsevolod Gnetiy, the special correspondent of Bitnewstoday in Italy

Image courtesy of Startmag.it