UK: Most Government Workers Could Be Replaced By Robots, New Study Finds
Most Government Workers Could Be Replaced By Robots, New
Study Finds
by Tyler Durden Feb 8, 2017 11:15 PM
Submitted by Emily Zanotti via HeatSt.com,
A study by a British think tank, Reform, says that 90% of
British civil service workers have jobs so pointless, they could easily be
replaced by robots, saving the government around $8 billion per year.
The study, published this week, says that robots are
“more efficient” at collecting data, processing paperwork, and doing the
routine tasks that now fall to low-level government employees. Even nurses and
doctors, who are government employees in the UK, could be relieved of some
duties by mechanical assistants.
There are “few complex roles” in civil service, it seems,
that require a human being to handle.
“Twenty percent of public-sector workers hold strategic,
‘cognitive’ roles,” Reform’s press release on the study says. “They will use
data analytics to identify patterns—improving decision-making and allocating
workers most efficiently.
“The NHS, for example, can focus on the highest risk
patients, reducing unnecessary hospital admissions. UK police and other
emergency services are already using data to predict areas of greatest risk
from burglary and fire.”
The problem, Reform says, is that public sector employee
unions have bloated the civil service ranks, forcing government agencies to
keep on older employees, and mandating hiring quotas for new ones. The
organizational chart looks like a circuit board—and there’s no incentive to
streamline anything.
Unfortunately for civil service workers, it seems the
study is just the latest in a series of research that won’t save their jobs. Oxford University
and financial services provider Deloitte, both of whom comissioned their own
studies concur with Reform‘s conclusions. The Oxford University study said that
more than 850,000 public sector jobs could fall to robots over the course of
the next decade.
Reform suggests that government employees should probably
look into opportunities presented by the “sharing economy,” like driving for
Uber – at least until robots replace those, too.
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