Coronavirus and Robotization Jeopardizing Tens of Millions of Jobs – Commerce, Production and Hospitality Sectors at Risk

Around 53 million jobs in the European Union will be robotized by 2030, which could quicken due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing more than 20% of the workers to acquire new skills and to retrain, a study shows.

These are the results of a study carried out by the global McKinsey institute about the future of labor in Europe and the impact of COVID-19 and automation on the employment in the EU.

The study says that around 59 million people in the EU, that is, 26% of the total number of the employees could face the economic consequences of the pandemic and the restrictions soon – a reduction of working hours and salaries, or a temporary or permanent termination of labor contracts.

The COVID-19 crisis has already had a strong impact on the labor markets in the EU, but the pandemic is not the only cause of the changes to the labor in Europe.

The jobs jeopardized due to the COVID-19 pandemic and automation vary by sector, but the largest number of them is in three sectors – commerce, production and hospitality.

Work-capable populace in Europe will be reduced by around 13.5 million, that is, around 4%, by the end of the decade, and the drop will be especially prominent in Germany, with around four million fewer, and Italy, with around 2.5 million fewer work-capable people.

Automation and closing of certain economic activities, which will develop at an uneven pace, will lead to a reduction of the number of jobs and quicken the process of creation of new professions.

On one hand, COVID-19 could accelerate the retraining for new jobs, requiring new skills, whereas, on the other, the crisis could widen the gap between more and less educated workers, but also between EU states, the reports says.

It is said that around 50% of the Europeans live in stable economies which attract new residents and that the European areas where around 30% of its residents live are facing a reduction of work-capable populace due to immigration of aging, whereas the remaining 20% comprise the category with a dynamic growth and the highest GDP per capita.

The number of work-capable residents in Europe living and working in another European state doubled between 2003 and 2018 from around eight to 16 million, the report says.

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