Third of jobs under threat from robots — with transport, factory and shop jobs most at risk

CLOSE to a third of existing UK jobs could be under threat from robots in the next 15 years, a shock report found.

Transport, factory and shop jobs are most at risk by the early 2030s.

But accountancy giant PwC which compiled the report said “no industry is immune”.

It revealed around 30 per cent of current roles in the UK are “susceptible” to machines, although it did add in a lot of cases the nature of jobs for humans will change rather than completely disappear.

The UK is more at threat from the rise of the robot than Japan, where just 21 per cent of jobs are vulnerable.

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But the threat is lower than in Germany (35 per cent) or the US (38 per cent).

In the UK transport jobs are one of the sectors most at potential risk (56.4 per cent of the total) with the inevitable boom in self-driving vehicles in the coming years.

Manufacturing (46.4 per cent) and retail (44 per cent) jobs are also among the riskiest categories.

But roles in water, sewage and waste management, a sector where 62.6 per cent of roles are at risk, top the list.

Least at risk are education (8.5 per cent) and domestic jobs, such as cleaners (8.1 per cent).

Male jobs (35 per cent) are more at risk than female (26 per cent), it found.

PwC’s chief economist John Hawksworth said: “A key driver of our industry-level estimates is the fact that manual and routine tasks are more susceptible to automation, while social skills are relatively less automatable.

“That said, no industry is entirely immune from future advances in robotics and AI (artificial intelligence).”

He added “Automating more manual and repetitive tasks will eliminate some existing jobs, but could also enable some workers to focus on higher value, more rewarding and creative work, removing the monotony from our day jobs.”

The UK employment rate is currently at its highest level since the 1970s and “it is not clear” how this will change in the future.

Mr Hawksworth added the rise of robots could create new jobs, saying: “By boosting productivity – a key UK weakness over the past decade – and so generating wealth, advances in robotics and AI should also create additional jobs in less automatable parts of the economy as this extra wealth is spent or invested.”