Up to 85 percent of jobs in some developing countries could be threatened by automation, according to research from the World Bank. That troubling prediction has experts debating what the development community can do to leverage the best of technology, while mitigating some of its harsher side effects for the world’s poorest.
The proportion of jobs threatened by automation could be as high as 85 percent in Ethiopia, 69 percent in India, and 77 percent in China, said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in a speech at the Brookings Institution on Monday.
“The traditional economic path from productive agriculture to light manufacturing and then to large scale industrialization may not be possible for all developing countries. In large parts of Africa it is likely that technology could fundamentally disrupt this pattern,” Kim said.
About the author
Sophie Edwards
Sophie Edwards is a Devex Contributing Reporter covering global education, water and sanitation, and innovative financing, along with other topics. She has previously worked for NGOs, and the World Bank, and spent a number of years as a journalist for a regional newspaper in the U.K. She has a master's degree from the Institute of Development Studies and a bachelor's from Cambridge University.
