Millennials: Studies Say Your Work Future Is Not Looking Too Bright

Millennials now make up the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, outnumbering employees from the Generation X and baby boomer generations. And with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution coming into full swing, the "future of work" is looking gloomy for Millennials. In Carl Frey and Michael Osborne's "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation? study, they analyzed the number of jobs at risk to technology, and according to their estimates, about 47 percent of total U.S. employment is in the high-risk category of being replaced by automation such as that produced by robots. A McKinsey & Company report states that "half of today's work activities could be automated by 2055, but this could happen up to 20 years earlier or later depending on various factors, in addition to other economic conditions." The report says they are most prevalent in manufacturing, accommodation and food service, and retail trade, and include some middle-skill jobs. So what generation is most at risk? Gallup conducted their own research using Frey and Osborne's calculations, determining each generation's susceptibility to losing jobs to AI. According to Gallup's analysis, "millennials are the generation most vulnerable to the threat of AI and automation, as they are disproportionately more likely to hold positions that Frey and Osborne estimate as having a strong likelihood to one day be replaced by this new technology." Should millennials start panicking now? Well, that depends on your current occupation. Nearly four in 10 millennials (37 percent) are at high risk of having their job replaced by automation, compared with 32 percent of those in the two older generations, stated the Gallup report. Career analysts say that the work millennials do early in their careers are easier to replace because they haven't accumulated the job skills of older, more experienced workers who do more complex work requiring problem solving. In other words, at the risk of offending millennials, the work many of them do are simple enough for AI or automation to take over. But really, no millennials -- whatever their jobs -- are safe from AI. Jason Dorsey, Chief Strategy Officer at The Center for Generational Kinetics, and a millennials expert, tells Forbes, "[T]he jobs at risk of being replaced by AI are not just the entry-level jobs that people typically assume, but rather the repetitive white collar jobs such as in accounting and financial services.