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Robots could take half of jobs in Italy

Staff reporter
Staff reporter - [email protected]
Robots could take half of jobs in Italy
The study from Brussels think-tank Bruegel found 56.18 percent of jobs in Italy at the moment could be computerized. Robot photo: Shutterstock"

More than half of the jobs currently being done in Italy could be taken over by robots in the next 20 years, according to a think-tank.

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The study from Brussels think-tank Bruegel found 56.18 percent of jobs in Italy at the moment could be computerized and left to robots in the next two decades.

European countries most at risk from this computerization were Romania (61.93 percent), Poland, Bulgaria and Greece - all around 56 percent.

The exact impact this could have on unemployment rates is unclear because as technology takes over, new jobs are created, meaning those who lose their work to robots will not necessarily become unemployed.

“Technology is likely to dramatically reshape labour markets in the long run and to cause reallocations in the types of skills that the workers of tomorrow will need," Jeremy Bowles of Bruegel wrote about his study last week. "To mitigate the risks of this reallocation it is important for our educational system to adapt."

A study published in September last year caused a stir when it listed the jobs in the US most at risk to robots.

The study calculated how at risk jobs were of computerization by identifying three things which hinder robots potentially taking over the job – creative intelligence, social intelligence and perception and manipulation tasks.

Telemarketers, clerks, referees and credit analysts were among the jobs most likely to be taken over by robots, while those least at risk included recreational therapists, social workers and doctors.

The Bruegel think-tank took this data from the 2013 study which was based on US employment figures and applied it to Europe to find out how at risk European countries were.

On the whole, jobs in northern European economies were least at risk of computerization, while those in the south and east were most susceptible.  

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