Automation and Job Loss Statistics: The Future is Coming Fast

Employment in the buggy-whip industry is about 0%.

That’s the example economists cite when they talk about technology and employment. As automobiles replaced horses, industries based on the old order shut down. The Industrial Revolution left millions unemployed, their jobs rendered obsolete by machines.

Today, automation, artificial intelligence, and a worldwide digital communications network serve as an empowering platform for unprecedented innovation. More inexpensive goods, less tedious work, and previously unimaginable levels of personalization are just some of the ways our lives are likely to improve through the sheer power of technology. 

Nevertheless, this unprecedented new age of progress also heralds a period of great challenges and uncertainty, especially when it comes to employment.

Key Automation Job Loss Statistics for 2025

• More than a third of all business tasks are performed by machines in 2025.
• Robots and autonomous systems will displace 5 million jobs by 2030.
• 77% of employers in 2025 plan to train their employees to work alongside AI.
• AI is set to replace more than 41% of jobs in the next five years.
• The global human augmentation market is valued at $492.06 billion in 2025.

By 2030, more than 46.5% of jobs in the energy, utilities and mining industry will be at a high risk of automation.

(Statista)

This industry will be one of the hardest-hit in the coming five years, as the level of automization and optimization of tools threatens to cut nearly half of the workforce.

More than 34% of all business tasks are now performed by machines.

(World Economic Forum)

The latest available data shows just how much automation has already disrupted the system, as more than a third of all business-related tasks are now automated.

There will be 718,000 industrial robot shipments in 2026.

(Statista)

This segment of the automation market has rapidly grown in the past few years, as there were 553,000 shipments just five years earlier.

Robots and autonomous systems will displace 5 million more jobs than they will create by 2030.

(World Economic Forum)

This technogy trend will make robotics the highest job displacer, primarily due to the emergence of self-driving vehicles. 

There are more than 4.2 million robots in factories worldwide in 2025.

(International Federation of Robotics)

The number of industrial robots operating around the world has increased by 10% in 2024, as Asia dominates the market with 70% of all new robots deployed to this region.

57% of employers say that the main goal of automation is the augmentation of worker performance and productivity.

(Willis Towers Watson)

While there is a prevalent belief and more than a little evidence that business owners are shifting toward automated technologies and innovations just to replace expensive human workers, the truth may be quite different, as business owners seek higher productivity and lower potential for mistakes.

More than 70% of people would be willing to augment their bodies and brains in order to improve their employment prospects.

(PwC)

The impact of automation will not only mean losing jobs to a robotic threat, but will also bring us face-to-face with a completely different issue: Our jobs will increasingly depend on our willingness to augment our bodies and brains to stay competitive.

With many people already willing to fuse with machines in one way or another, it is clear how powerful our drive to keep the edge really is.

The global human augmentation market is valued at $492.06 billion in 2025.

(Precedence Research)

North America easily leads the world when it comes to human augmentation, with 46.14% of the global revenue.

AI is set to replace more than 41% of jobs in the next five years.

(World Economic Forum)

The 2025-2030 period will be highly disruptive in the job market, as the impact of AI is currently beating all previous projections. The latest data shows that some 77% of employers also plan to train their employees to work alongside AI.

Artificial intelligence alone is expected to have a $19.9 trillion economic impact by 2030.

(IDC)

The latest research from 2024 also found that AI is expected to drive 3.5% of the global GDP by 2030.

The automation potential for jobs that require less than a bachelor’s degree is 55%.

(Brookings Institution)

Over the next decade, in-house manual production and office administration jobs will continue to face the most risk due to outsourcing or automation.

Positions that don’t require a bachelor’s degree are almost at double the risk of occupations that do. Only 24% of those jobs are likely to be automated, while occupational groups like food preparation and serving could face disruption of up to 80%.

The youngest workers are at the highest risk of being displaced due to automation.

(Brookings Institution)

Workers aged 16 to 24 are at a 49% average automation exposure, putting them ahead of their older counterparts. Workers aged 25-54 have a 40% task automation potential, which is about the same percentage that workers age 55-64 face.

What’s making the youngest workers so disproportionately affected is that they are overrepresented in highly repetitive jobs like food service and preparation. To put it in perspective: People aged 16 to 24 are 9% of the overall workforce in America, but they represent 29% of all workers in the food preparation and service industry.

30% of all hours worked in the entire US economy could be automated by 2030.

(McKinsey)

The previous projection had this number at 21%, but the explosion of Generative AI is pushing automation further than expected.

In 2025, more than 72% of businesses use generative AI in at least one business function.

(McKinsey)

The level of adoption has skyrocketed, growing by 17% in a single year, with Gen AI adoption growing by 29% in 2024 alone.

65% of Walmart stores in the US will be serviced by automation in 2026.

(Reuters)

This is just one example of how automation really impacts the US today, as Walmart seeks to optimize and automate operations like sorting and packing in order to reduce costs.

The AI robots market is worth $20.51 billion in 2025.

(Precedence Research)

AI-powered personal robots are expected to become a part of our world in the coming years, with the current projections seeing this market reaching the $100 billion mark by 2033.

By 2030, postal service and clerk and bank teller jobs are projected to shrink by 25%.

(World Economic Forum)

The 2025 report by WEF found that administrative jobs are easily the most at risk of automation in the next five years.

40% of global jobs were exposed to AI in 2024.

(IMF)

The number is much higher in advanced economies, where 60% of all jobs were exposed last year.

More than 70% of employers intend to incorporate AI into recruitment processes in 2025, without human oversight.

(Resume Builder)

Not only is automation leading to job loss, but is making the hiring process more impersonal and artifical as well. For example, the same survey from January 2025 found that 69% of employers will use AI to assess candidate qualifications by using analytical tools.

By 2027, AI could automate 25% of labor tasks in advanced economies.

(Goldman Sachs)

The report predicted that AI will start to have real impact on GDP in the next three years, and that emerging economies will see 10-20% labor automation in that period of time.

Sailing Into The Brave New World

There is no doubt that automation is a powerful force for change and that it is already reshaping the world. Each technological leap has brought huge disruptions to the way the economy works and the types of jobs that people do. And the coming revolution promises to be bigger and more disruptive than any that came before.

The age of robotics and artificial intelligence could bring a catastrophic crisis due to job loss fallout, but it also presents an incredible opportunity to create a better life for everyone.

The worker of the future will increasingly be required to have knowledge in areas like programming and design as our place in the workforce moves from manual labor into positions that require more critical thinking and planning. 

The statistics we collected show that our competitive nature will play a big part in the fusion of machines and humans. A vast majority of people already admit that they would willingly use technology to improve their brains and bodies just to keep the edge with the competition, and that number is sure to increase as we move forward.

All of this means that by 2050 our world is likely to look much different. We get to decide how human workers will fit into that world, and it is imperative that we choose wisely.