To coincide with the announcement that a new Commission on Workers and Technology, chaired by Yvette Cooper MP, is being launched, the Fabian Society – in collaboration with the trade union community – has released findings of a YouGov survey aimed at understanding workers hopes and fears over new technologies disrupting the workplace and the impact over the next 10 years.

The survey, which covered over 1,000 people across the UK found more than 53 per cent of workers were optimistic about their future working life and job prospects, when thinking about technology change in the next decade. Workers aged under 45 were found to be more optimistic than older workers suggesting that they understood the positive impacts more.

Yvette Cooper said: “It’s vital that action is taken now to make sure technology creates new better jobs and that all workers benefit from new technology.

“We have to make sure that automation and the digital revolution don’t widen inequality and that everyone gets the help and support they need to get on … We need to ensure that automation is an opportunity and not a threat for British workers.”

Machines Taking Over

However, 23% of workers (over 6 million people) said that they were worried their job may no longer be needed when asked to think whether the role would still exist in ten year’s time. There was little difference in the percentage worried about their job disappearing between social groups, the study found, suggesting this is a concern for everyone regardless of background.

The negative sentiment was echoed when asked whether the government was doing enough to understand the impacts of newer technologies and prepare the country for this change. Fewer than 10% of workers thought the government was doing enough, while only 16% said the trade union in their workplace had been taking steps to ensure technology would improve their working lives.

The Economic Impacts of AI

Leading think tanks have also assessed the impact of automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace, suggesting that more than 13.7 million people who together earn about £290 billion could be displaced or replaced entirely by workplace automation in the next decade.

Economists fear that lower-income and manual jobs would be most at risk, eroding the middle-class and putting greater pressure on the government as greater numbers become unemployed.

Initiatives such as Universal Basic Income have become attractive alternatives to traditional methods such as income support and tax credits, but as yet these have not been fully assessed in the UK despite successes in Nordic countries.