Robots 'threaten 50% of United Kingdom jobs'

Speaking to the Trades Union Congress in London the Bank of England's chief economist, Andy Haldane, unveiled Bank research estimating the probability of a range of jobs being automated over the next few decades.

In the meantime, those who say immigrants are "taking our jobs" may have found a new target: pesky work-stealing robots!

With jobs being automated, more companies opt to replace workers who are being paid wages to machines or computers.

The Bank's calculations on automation showed that 15 million jobs could be at risk, representing almost half the present workforce.

He said: "Occupations most at risk including administrative, clerical and production tasks. Nor are they likely to choose a robot to look after their young children or elderly parents (tempting as that can sometimes sound)".

The bank classified jobs into three categories - those with a high (over 66%), medium (33-66%) and low (under 33%) probability of automation.

"Machines are already undertaking tasks which were unthinkable - if not unimaginable - a decade ago", said Haldane.

'In a world in which machines came to dominate tasks involving core cognitive processing, the importance of, and skill premium attached to, non-cognitive skills is likely to rise, ' Haldane said.

The negative impact of technology to jobs was present since the ancient times.

The same trend, the chief economist warned will also be witnessed in the United States, where the current labor force of roughly 160 million Americans will see half of its jobs go to automation.

Putting that in context, there are around 31.21 million people in work in the United Kingdom today, out of a total population of 64 million. Around 1.75 million people are unemployed but are looking for work. "And gaps between those with and without skills, or with and without jobs, may widen as never before".

Mr Haldane added: "The driverless vehicle was science fiction no more than a decade ago".

And - although the fear that technology will replace workers has been prevalent for centuries - advancements have actually boosted wages. He said that people should be trained on jobs requiring abilities that only humans can perform like those which entail high-level reasoning and imagination. Economists will lose up to 15 percent market share to robots.

On interest rates, Haldane reiterated his reasons for voting to keep rates on hold. Now more than ever, policy needs to be poised to move off either foot depending on which way the data break, ' he said.