Whitepaper: The Start of the Curve – Quantifying the impact of job automation

Adzuna tackles the conundrum by looking back, not forward, and examining real observed trends in job vacancies in recent years. If we are at the point of inflection of the curve, then should we already be able to see some early evidence for job losses caused by automation? That is the question Adzuna seeks to investigate.

This is the first study of its kind and looks at job vacancy levels since 2015 . The findings have been extracted from one of the largest archives of job advertisements on the planet. 79 million job adverts, in fact.

Adzuna has undertaken this study to arm the talent industry with information that can help them put the best foot forward with their long term planning.

The analysis of Adzuna’s jobs data from the United Kingdom from January 2015 to February 2017 leads to three main conclusions:

1. 13 out of 20 of the fastest declining jobs have declined due to the effects of automation. This includes 3 occupations which have had declines driven specifically by advancements in AI technology.
2. Changes in job vacancies over this period do not support predictions by leading studies on the impact of job automation.
3. Although AI and automation have not affected job vacancies in the way predicted by recent studies, the evidence suggests and overall level of decline due to automation which indicates we are at the start of the curve.

Download our whitepaper, penned by Head of Data Science at Adzuna, James Neave, titled, “The Start of the Curve – Quantifying the impact of job automation.”