Thu, Feb 8th 2024
A Federal Statistical Office survey in Switzerland reveals only 1% of the workforce faces high automation risk due to routine tasks and low autonomy, showcasing Switzerland’s low risk compared to Europe.
The risk of automation for employees in Switzerland is low compared to the rest of Europe. Only one percent of the workforce perform jobs with so much routine and so little self-determination that they could be replaced by machines.
This is the conclusion reached by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) in a survey for 2022 published on Thursday, according to which employees who never used digital devices for their work were in the minority at 13.3 percent.
31.4 percent never carried out manual work. In contrast, 14.5 percent worked with their hands all or most of the time. This included more men than women. Foreign nationals were also more likely to earn their living with manual work than Swiss nationals.
35.6 percent of employees worked with digital devices all the time. The younger generation used these devices more frequently.
The only exception were the employed 15 to 24-year-olds. The FSO explains this on the one hand by the fact that some of them were still in apprenticeships or worked in a trade or service occupation. Others were still in training and had part-time jobs in manual rather than intellectual activities.
Half of working women and men stated that they spend part of their working time reading technical documents or doing relatively complicated calculations. 13 percent do not perform any such tasks.
4.9% of those in employment said that their work was highly routine. This statement was more common among women (5.7 percent) than men (4.2 percent). The proportion was highest among people without professional qualifications at 18.1 percent. 9.2 percent had little autonomy in their job, and 18.1 percent with no qualifications.
For only one percent of employees, the job was characterized by a lot of routine and little autonomy – both risk factors for automation. According to the FSO, this puts Switzerland among the European countries with the lowest risk of automation. This is highest in Slovakia (11.4 percent).
©Keystone/SDA
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