Twelve million jobs to be lost to automation in Europe by 2040

About 12 million jobs will be automated by 2040, with jobs that consist of simple, routine tasks the most at risk of being replaced by software robots.

According to Forrester, the impact on the jobs market will be lessened because Europe’s biggest economies will have millions fewer people of working age. Meanwhile, it said the automation industry itself and the green energy revolution would create nine million jobs in Europe’s five biggest economies.

In its Job Forecast 2020-2040, which analysed France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, Forrester found that the retail, food services, and leisure and hospitality sectors would see the most automation. 

Forrester said the Covid-19 pandemic had put pressure on organisations to automate. “Lost productivity due to Covid-19 is forcing companies globally to automate manual processes and improve remote work,” said Forrester analyst Michael O’Grady. “The pandemic is just one factor that will shape the future of work in Europe over the next two decades, however.”

He added that European organisations were also in a strong position to embrace automation because of the region’s declining working-age population and the high number of routine low-skilled jobs that can be easily automated. Automation will subsequently become integral to how European governments and employers look at their competitiveness and manage their older demographic.”

Forrester’s report predicts that Europe’s five biggest economies will have 30 million fewer people of working age in 2040 than in 2020.

Mid-skilled jobs will see the biggest automation rates. They make up 38% of the workforce in Germany, 34% of the workforce in France, and 31% of the workforce in the UK. Forrester said 49 million jobs in Europe were at risk from automation.

“Automation is about augmenting people, not necessarily replacing them. It makes people more productive and allows them to focus on the things they are good at, using their empathy, knowledge and understanding”