Study: One-quarter of millennials fear robots taking their jobs

Dive Brief:

Almost one-quarter of millennials age 18 to 25 believe that within the decade their job will be replaced by a robot, according to a recent Comparably study of more than 36,000 public and private employees in the tech sector. No other age group exceeds 20%, and the next closest is 26-35 year olds at just over 15%.
This number comes in under the estimated 40% of the overall population who fear losing their job to robots, according to a recent study by Baylor University. Robots are not the only technology workers fear; approximately 13% of respondents in a recent Gallup survey cite concerns of losing their jobs to automation, robots, AI or new tech within the next five years.
Close to one-third of millennials ages 18-35 said they were ready to leave their current jobs in less than one year and close to one-quarter said within 1-2 years. More than one-quarter of millennials said they plan on staying for at least two more years.

Dive Insight:

As the first generation to grow up with mobile technology, millennials offer a unique departure from past generations in their relation to technology. Now that their population is well on the way to becoming the dominant force in the labor market, understanding their professional demands and behaviors is critical.

Millennials value a high degree of mobility and consumer-like tools in their workplace. They offer a different style of employee than past generations and oftentimes promote a workplace with more collaboration, freedom and social characteristics.

In contrast to their familiarity and fluency with modern tech, millennials are also cited as the greatest risk to the enterprise because they tend to circumvent IT security policies and use unapproved applications at work.

Millennials' views on automation and gender disparity reflect ongoing trends in the enterprise. While automation is expected to replace fewer than 5% of all occupations, McKinsey's predictions that half of knowledge-based positions could soon be automated incurs fears among more than just blue-collar workers.