Approximately 24% of UK workers are concerned or very concerned about losing their job because of technological changes, second only to workers in the US (17%) and on par with workers in Switzerland (24%), according to a study from the Adecco Group in partnership with Boston Consulting Group.

The Adecco Group and Boston Consulting Group’s study ‘Future Skilling’, surveyed 4,700 workers from nine countries to better understand how they are experiencing reskilling today.

The study also found that workers in Singapore (54%), India (54%), Italy (31%), France (27%), China (26%) and Japan (25%) are all more concerned about technology taking their jobs than the UK, US and Switzerland.

In addition, British employees are also amongst those least likely to think that technology trends (such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation and digitisation) will change their jobs. Over a third (43%) of people in the UK expect technology to change their job slowly or not at all. Only Japan (59%) is more likely to think that the impact of technology on jobs will be slow, or that there won't be an impact at all. This scepticism is less present in other countries, most notably Italy (24%), India (23%), China (27%) and Switzerland (27%).

The study found that workers across the nine countries see advances such as AI, automation or digitalisation as having a major impact on their current and future jobs. Two-thirds of survey respondents see their job changing significantly at least every five years because of technological advances. Of this group, 10% believe the frequency of changes to their jobs will make it hard to keep up, expecting changes to their jobs to be more frequent than every two years, while one quarter expect changes in their jobs every two to three years.

While there is concern about the impact of technological changes on jobs across age groups, older age groups are less concerned about losing their job because of technological changes than younger age groups. The most worried age group are 25-34-year-olds, with 37% somewhat/very concerned, whereas 23% of 55-65-year-olds and 3% of those over 65 are somewhat/very concerned. The study stated that this is likely explained by the fact that they are coming closer to the age of retirement.

According to the study, 71% of respondents consider the acquisition of new or upgrade skills important, while 68% want this to acquire a new job in a current field and 72% believe it is important to be promoted.

Alex Fleming, President and Country Head of the Adecco Group UK & Ireland, commented: "The rise of technology will see roles change and new jobs emerge, so skills will need to evolve in order to keep up with and benefit from these developments. Over the past decade, the majority of UK workers have recognised the importance of upskilling. However, the number of people not even considering acquiring new skills in response to this is concerning. Both individuals and the organisations they work for need to ensure that they are ready to retrain and upskill in order to meet the demands of our future economy."

Fleming commented, "Far from a nice to have, upskilling will increasingly become the key to not just futureproofing jobs, but organisations too. The fact that a lack of time is cited as one of the main barriers to acquiring new skills, means that there is still a way to go to ensure this message gets through." 

Nick South, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group, also commented, "Employees are generally optimistic about their ability to acquire new skills and be successful in the digital world of the future. However, there is a disconnect between this optimism and how they will actually acquire these skills, and in the extent to which companies are actively evaluating gaps between the skills they have today and those they need in the future."