One in five people polled in Luxembourg are afraid that technological progress would make their job obsolete in the next decade Pexels

One in five people polled in Luxembourg are afraid that technological progress would make their job obsolete in the next decade Pexels

The survey was conducted with 1,522 people in 2017 over the phone on behalf of the Chambre des Salariés as part of their “Quality of Work Index No.8”. Published on 12 January, it found that 14.9% of respondents were afraid they would lose their job because of improved technology, 6.9% were very afraid while 88.2% were mildly concerned.

Concern was stronger among the middle age range of respondents, with almost 30% of 45 to 54-year-olds afraid and 25% of 35-44-year-old frightened of losing their jobs. The proportion was slightly higher among men with 24% of male respondents saying they were afraid or very afraid.

By sector and regardless of age, machine operators were the most worried (40%) followed by administrative workers (27%), managers and directors (24%) and craftspeople (23%).

“When we talk about digitisation, concerns about the ways in which digitisation could lead to job losses are raised. These fears are generally relatively moderate,” the report author wrote.

In a bid to pre-empt the impact of increased digitisation in the workplace of the future,  Luxembourg is to launch a digital skills bridge programme in spring 2018. The project aims to identify jobs in Luxembourg that will change or be made redundant by robots and reskill the staff affected.