The robots coming for your job

IF there are two truths that are universally acknowledged, they are that western populations are ageing and that more jobs are likely to be automated. That is the focus of a new report called "The Twin Threats of Aging and Automation", a collaboration between Marsh & McLennan's Global Risk Centre, Mercer, and Oliver Wyman. The study looks at 15 countries and concludes that Asian workers are most at risk (see chart). By 2050, the UN estimates that more than a third of the world's population will be over 50, up from less than 16% in 1950. As a proportion of the working-age population, those aged between 50 and 64 already make up more than 30% of the workforce in Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan.