Study: one in eight fears for their own job due to digitization

According to a new survey, around every eighth employee in Germany fears for their own job because of the ongoing digitalization in the world of work.

Twelve percent of those surveyed expressed concern in a job study by the consulting firm EY that their jobs could be endangered in the future as a result of new technological developments. In contrast, 88 percent of those questioned did not raise any concerns in this regard. The study was available to the German Press Agency in Stuttgart on Monday.

EY conducts surveys of this type on a regular basis. Noticeable: two years ago, i.e. before the corona pandemic, the proportion of employees worried about their own jobs due to digitization was even slightly higher at 13 percent. Four years ago (7 percent), however, the uncertainty was much less pronounced.

If one breaks down the question of technologically based job fears into individual economic sectors, the banking, real estate and insurance sectors stand out in particular. Every fifth employee in this area (20 percent) is worried about their own job because of technological progress. In the auto industry it is 19 percent, in mechanical and plant engineering it is 17 percent. In comparison, employees from the health sector, for example, have few concerns (8 percent).

After all, more than one in three employees (36 percent) said that new technologies had already replaced parts of their own work in the past – one in twenty employees even spoke of a “considerable scope”. Broken down to economic sectors, employees from the banking, real estate and insurance industries (46 percent) most frequently stated that minor or significant parts of their former work had meanwhile been technically replaced. This is followed by the telecommunications / IT sector (42 percent) and the automotive industry (40 percent).