According to a recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute, about 25% of women in the U.S. will lose their livelihood to technology within the next decade. The same applies for men who dominate the manufacturing industry, which is also seeing an increasing amount of automation.
However, women take the bulk of posts in the clerical work industry. These are jobs such as bookkeeping, scheduling, and secretaries. The research report says that as much as 160 million women around the world will lose their work to automation by the year 2030. The female-dominated occupations will see rapid development in artificial intelligence leading to human staffer being replaced by algorithms and machines.
Most of the machine-replacing-human operation will be first witnessed in advanced economies. That means countries such as the US, China, and European countries will be first in line. The McKinsey report shows that 107 million automatable jobs in China and the U.S. are half occupied by women. They could all be rendered jobless by 2030.
In developing economies, the researchers established that 25% of machine operation works and 40% of clerical works are done by women. They also stand to lose their jobs to automation (algorithm and machines) by 2030.
While other jobs will be destroyed, new ones will be created
The McKinsey report was not all doom. The report further unearthed by within the health care industry, about 171 million jobs will be created by 2013. Women can now position themselves by arming with the appropriate skills and experience to take advantage of newly created jobs and steer clear of industry where technology is likely to automate tasks.