Five counties in Georgia are among those at risk of losing jobs to automation, according to a university study.
Most in danger are jobs in Quitman, Murray, Whitfield, Treutlen and Atkinson counties – all far from Atlanta, relatively rural and relatively small in population – at least compared to the large metro areas.
The largest is Whitfield, which includes the carpet-making center of Dalton, and has more than 100,000 residents.
But it's not just the outlying areas where jobs are vulnerable, according to a report prepared by the Center for Business and Economic Research and the Rural Policy Institute's Center for State Policy at Ball State University in Indiana.
Jobs are at risk in other ways in other places, the researchers found.
But when it comes to automation, they concluded that ten most easily automated jobs are those that involve relatively straight-forward actions, even those that seem inherently to be for humans to do: telemarketers and insurance underwriters, for example.
Among those least likely to be automated, according to Ball State: occupational therapists, mechanics and their supervisors, social workers, audiologists and healthcare workers.
The McKinsey Global Institute recently released a prediction on the sectors where automation is most likely: food services, manufacturing, warehousing and transportation, agriculture and retail.
The Ball State study found that the workers most at risk of losing jobs to automation are also the ones with lower wages to begin with – generally below $40,000 a year.
And while there has been a lot written about the social and political upheaval caused by the loss of manufacturing jobs in the past several decades, the impact in coming years could be more drastic and the situation could get worse, if Ball State is right.
“Automation is likely to replace half of all low-skilled jobs,” says Michael Hicks, director of Ball State’s Center for State Policy. “Communities where people have lower levels of educational attainment and lower incomes are the most vulnerable to automation. Considerable labor market turbulence is likely in the coming generation.”
HOW GOOD IS ATLANTA FOR BUSINESS?
And while automation is going to be an important issue, globalization could also lure an enormous number of jobs overseas, the study found.
Roughly one-fourth of all American jobs are at risk from foreign competition – and that danger crosses industries and economic boundaries, Hicks said. “More worrisome is that there is considerable concentration of job loss risks across labor markets, educational attainment and earnings.”
Foreign rivals could target the urban centers where most American job growth has been, not just rural manufacturing, he said. “This ... accrues across industries and is more pronounced across urban regions.”
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GEORGIA JOB INSECURITY
Counties most in danger of having jobs automated
- Quitman
- Murray
- Whitfield
- Treutlen
- Atkinson
- Warren
- Talbot
- Wilkinson
- Macon
- Taliaferro
18. Clayton
149. Gwinnett
153. DeKalb
156. Cobb
158. Fulton
Source: Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University
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Counties most in danger of losing jobs to globalization
- Whitfield
- Irwin
- Forsyth
- Fayette
- Fulton
- Oconee
- Gordon
- Elbert
- Coffee
- Murray
17. DeKalb
20. Cobb
58. Gwinnett
93. Clayton
Source: Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University
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