The impact of technology on the global workforce is explored in a new research report from PwC, which interviewed 10,000 people across the UK, US, Germany, China and India.

Workers in the UK are more worried about the future of their role than those in the other countries surveyed. More than a third of workers across the country stated they’re concerned about automation and technology replacing them.

The UK is also the most concerned that advancing technology will harm their job prospects. A fifth of those surveyed in the UK said that technological developments are likely to harm their future employability,

Despite this, the idea of up-skilling and re-skilling is growing. Three out of five workers said they would learn new skills in order to remain employable. However, nearly half of those surveyed believe it’s their employer’s responsibility to

Three out of five of those surveyed said they are ready to learn a new skill, or retrain in a completely different skill set, to ensure they remain employable. However, nearly half of those believe it is their employer’s responsibility to provide them with those new skills.

Across the whole survey, nearly half of the respondents said that governments should take action to protect jobs from automation and technological advances.

Confidence in the workforce of the future remains high however. 70% believe that technology will never be able to replace the human mind, and 78% believe that certain human skills will always be in demand.

Think Skills, Not Job Roles

Stewart Wilson, PwC technology partner and consulting lead for Scotland, said: “We are living in a period of huge change – the concept of a job for life, even in the public sector – is no longer relevant today. People are competing not just with others for positions but also with increasingly sophisticated technologies.

“While it’s reassuring to see many people are stepping up and accepting that they need to continually update their skills to remain relevant in the workplace, employers have a considerable responsibility in all of this as well.

“Employers with a responsible technology plan are engaging the workforce to help them understand, prepare and potentially up-skill for any impact technology may have on their future role. These organisations are also working to address the impact of digital and emerging technology on the health and wellbeing of their workforce – an equally important dimension to this challenge.”

David Gimson, Transformation specialist at PwC, added: “Technology will change the nature of people’s jobs, but in most cases we will see humans and machines working together rather than whole roles being replaced.

“This can be a positive thing – replacing time consuming, laborious and repetitive tasks with those which require human ingenuity – but as with any change it will need to be handled with sensitivity and in the context of the organisation’s own strategy.

“Whilst software and automation can reduce costs they also need to be harnessed and have human input to get the real benefit from them, and this will mean people working differently.

“Ultimately technology is redefining what talent means and what skills will be most valuable to employers in the future.

“Skills will change, market demands will change and ultimately the companies will have to change as well. This digital transformation will be a change of mindsets and business operations as much as anything else.”

“The speed of change means that the jobs of the future are hard to predict, so people should be thinking of themselves as a bundle of skills rather than a defined role or profession. Flexibility and the ability to reinvent yourself will ultimately be the most in-demand skills from employers in the future.”

The report is available online.