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New Statesman
a day ago
- Business
- New Statesman
AI, employment, and the UK's industrial strategy
Photo by WPA Pool / Getty AI has emerged as both a panacea and the harbinger of a dystopian future. For policymakers crafting Britain's industrial future, the challenge is fully burnishing one side of that coin, while minimising exposure to the other. Nowhere is this more evident than in the UK's Invest 2035 strategy, setting out a vision of economic renewal rooted in advanced technologies and regional growth. 'Jobs will be at the heart of our modern industrial strategy,' wrote Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, in their foreword to the strategy's draft consultation. At the same time, it promises 'an ambitious approach to grow the AI sector and drive responsible adoption across the economy'. The question is how, or whether, those two ambitions can fully succeed in tandem. PwC's latest Global AI Jobs Barometer, published in early June, analysed close to a billion job postings across six continents. It found that demand for roles with high AI exposure expanded at a slower pace than those less affected by AI. The gap between these groups has widened since 2020, with jobs least exposed to AI experiencing a surge in listings. Invest 2035 focuses on eight 'growth-driving' sectors that are undoubtedly seeing greater AI penetration: advanced manufacturing; clean energy; the creative industries; defence; digital and technologies; financial services; life sciences; and professional and business services. PwC's report also found that roles with substantial AI exposure have undergone significantly more changes in skill requirements over the past five years. If jobs are to be at the heart of this new economy, one major challenge is how the UK equips its current and emerging workforce to fully engage. The government's primary response to such questions lies with Skills England. Formally launched in 2024, the body is tasked with coordinating a fragmented post-16 skills system, and aligning it more closely with national economic priorities – including, crucially, the opportunities and risks posed by AI. With a mandate to 'drive forward a skills system that meets the needs of employers, learners and the wider economy', it is a key lever in delivering not just more jobs, but better ones. 'Skills England… will ensure that our workforce is equipped with the necessary skills to meet the demands of the modern economy,' Phil Smith, Skills England chair, told MPs in a parliamentary debate in February. The idea of lifelong learning – once a political platitude – has become a central pillar of this transition. As the economic landscape shifts faster than traditional education systems can keep pace with, workers increasingly need access to flexible, modular training that fits around existing jobs and responsibilities. Yet, as the IPPR has pointed out, the UK's investment in adult skills still lags behind many OECD peers. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe In a widely discussed 2024 report on AI and labour market disruption, the IPPR argued that the UK faces a binary future. 'Already existing generative AI could lead to big labour market disruption or it could hugely boost economic growth. Either way, it is set to be a gamechanger for millions of us,' said senior economist Carsten Jung. In that sense, industrial strategy cannot be separated from social policy. The government's proposed Advanced British Standard – a unified post-16 qualification intended to replace A-levels and T-levels – must prepare young people not only with subject knowledge but with the adaptability and analytical skills required in a rapidly evolving labour market. As automation touches roles from radiology to retail, the core employability question shifts from what you know to how quickly you can learn. That shift is not evenly distributed across society. In towns with industrial legacies or fragile labour markets, AI is more likely to displace than create jobs – unless there is targeted, place-based intervention. Invest 2035 makes regional rebalancing a core ambition. But the delivery depends on ensuring that skills provision reaches not just growing tech clusters but also under-served communities. Community learning providers like the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) have a role not just in teaching but in building confidence and trust – especially for older or insecure workers who may feel alienated by the pace of technological change. WEA chief executive Simon Parkinson has called for long-term policy and funding stability so providers can scale up their work: taking training 'to where people are, not where policy is most comfortable'. There are, however, lingering gaps between strategy and delivery. While government rhetoric supports 'responsible adoption' of AI, it remains vague on how to mitigate job displacement in sectors most vulnerable to automation. Some analysts argue that Invest 2035, like its predecessors, risks overstating short-term innovation gains while underestimating longer-term disruption. Meanwhile, employer responsibility remains a crucial, under-addressed issue. If businesses are to adopt AI in a way that benefits workers, not just bottom lines, they must be incentivised to invest in staff retraining. At present, many treat upskilling as an externality – a public good best delivered by someone else. Models such as Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs), designed to give employers a greater role in shaping local post-16 training, have potential, but questions have been raised in regards to consistency of ambition and effectiveness. Without stronger national coordination, these initiatives may amount to well-meaning but fragmented efforts, rather than transformative change. Indeed, the overarching challenge is neither technological nor economic – it is political. AI, like past waves of automation, will not distribute its rewards evenly or inevitably. The outcome will depend on the state's ability to shape markets and institutions in the public interest. 'AI… will transform jobs, destroy old ones, create new ones, trigger the development of new products and services and allow us to do things we could not do before,' Jung writes in 2025's The New Politics of AI: Why Fast Technological Change Requires Bold Policy Targets. 'But given its immense potential for change, it is important to steer it towards helping us solve big societal problems.' Invest 2035 boasts similarly grandiose ambitions. Its success will not rest on ambition alone, however, but on how convincingly it connects the dots between technology, training and trust. For AI and jobs to serve as dual engines of growth, the UK must resist the temptation to treat them as separate problems. They are, in reality, two faces of the same future. Related
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
In Hong Kong and globally, AI is not a job and wage killer, PwC says
Jobs requiring artificial intelligence (AI) skills are on the rise in Hong Kong as more businesses find practical use for the technology, but rather than replacing human ingenuity, AI is being combined with it to deliver productivity gains, according to PwC. The proportion of job postings in Hong Kong seeking AI skills rose to 1.9 per cent in 2024 from 1.6 per cent in 2021, according to the consultancy's 'Global AI Jobs Barometer' report published on Friday. In the information and communications sector, roles seeking AI skills increased to 7.2 per cent of the total in 2024 from 6.4 per cent in 2021, said the report, which analysed nearly 1 billion job ads and thousands of financial reports from around the world. Across all industries in the city, demand grew for roles that 'collate AI with human expertise', PwC said. 'The report underscores that rather than acting as a replacement for human creativity, AI is optimally deployed as a transformative 'enhancer', pushing boundaries [and] amplifying capabilities to drive greater efficiency and productivity across industries,' said Wilson Chow, PwC's global leader for technology, media and telecommunications and leader for China AI. Jobs involving AI augmentation increased by 6 per cent in Hong Kong, while fully automated roles decreased by around 7 per cent, according to the report. The increase was more pronounced in certain sectors – above 50 per cent in public administration and above 30 per cent in the energy and water-supply sectors since 2021, it added. The adoption rate of generative AI in Hong Kong increased to 62.1 per cent in 2024 from 56.3 per cent in 2023, indicating that AI applications in the workplace had entered the practical stage, according to IDC data. 'As a global hub of ingenuity, Hong Kong is uniquely positioned to unlock the redefined employment opportunities emerging from an AI-enabled work landscape,' Chow said.
Irish Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Job numbers in occupations exposed to AI up 94% in Ireland since 2019
Job numbers in occupations exposed to artificial intelligence (AI) in Ireland have grown 94 per cent since 2019, and the technology is making workers better able to command higher wage premiums, according to a new report from PwC. The group's 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, which is based on analysis of close to a billion job ads globally, has found that productivity growth has nearly quadrupled in industries most exposed to AI since its proliferation in 2022. Growth has risen from 7 per cent from 2018-2022 to 27 per cent from 2018-2024 in industries including financial services and software publishing. By contrast, the rate of productivity growth in industries least exposed to AI declined from 10 per cent to 9 per cent. Data from 2024 shows that the most AI-exposed industries are now seeing three times higher growth in revenue per employee than the least exposed. READ MORE PwC Ireland chief technology officer David Lee said the research shows that the power of AI to deliver for businesses is 'only at the start of the transition'. 'As we roll out agentic AI [making decisions without human intervention] at enterprise scale, we will see how the right combination of technology and culture can create dramatic new opportunities to reimage how organisations work and create value,' he said. [ AI in the office: Trust gap with staff is a big hurdle for companies Opens in new window ] The report found job numbers in AI-exposed occupations in Ireland have grown 94 per cent since 2019, with positive growth in every type of occupation. Augmentation-exposed jobs have seen much higher job growth across almost all sectors than automation-exposed jobs, reflecting demand for workers who are 'enhanced by AI', the report said. In Ireland, the results suggest that AI-exposed occupations are also undergoing transformation, requiring workers to reskill and upskill more frequently. For example, the top quartile of occupations exposed to AI in Ireland have seen a 2.78 times greater change in demanded skills compared with the bottom quartile. The report also found wages are growing twice as fast in industries more exposed to AI versus less exposed, with wages rising in both automatable and augmentable jobs. Jobs that require AI skills also offer a wage premium in every industry analysed, with the average premium hitting 56 per cent, up from 25 per cent last year. Although the picture on productivity, wages and jobs is broadly positive, the research highlighted the need for workers and businesses to adapt to a much faster pace of change. The skills sought by employers are changing 66 per cent faster in occupations most exposed to AI, up from 25 per cent last year. PwC Ireland partner Gerard McDonough said 44 per cent of Irish CEOs reported AI had increased efficiencies in their employees' time at work in the past 12 months. [ How AI will really impact your job Opens in new window ] 'However, to reach full potential, close attention needs to be given to skills enhancement,' he said. 'The survey revealed that 73 per cent of Irish business leaders are of the view that AI will require most of their workforce to develop new skills.' He added that AI's rapid advance is not just reshaping industries, but 'fundamentally altering the workforce and the skills required'. 'This is not a situation that employers can easily buy their way out of,' he said. 'Even if they can pay the premium required to attract talent with AI skills, those skills can quickly become out of date without investment in the systems to help the workforce learn.'
