MODELS, secretaries and auditors are among the top 10 jobs likely to disappear in the next few years due to Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) technologies.

In contrast, dieticians, hoteliers and teachers are among the jobs least likely to be replaced by robots and artificial intelligence, according to a labour market government agency.

The increasing of presence of software in all industries and the need to be online means software developers, graphic designers and data analysts are among the types of jobs in demand.

This is a snapshot of Malaysia’s present and future job market as more and more companies adopt IR 4.0 technologies, according to TalentCorp Malaysia.

The changes and disruptions to traditional career paths are among the challenges that the new government has to manage to ensure that Malaysian workers are prepared for the future labour landscape.

The careers most and least likely to disappear due to automation were revealed by TalentCorp to The Malaysian Insight in an email interview recently.

TalentCorp and the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis (ILMIA) are part of the critical skills monitoring committee (CSC), which assesses labour trends and tracks skills imbalances between employers, workers, school leavers and graduates.

The committee, the ILMIA and TalentCorp are all under the Human Resources Ministry.

Together, they produce the critical occupations list annual report, which lists skills and jobs in demand, while also highlighting those facing a shortage.

Automation-led redundancy

The Malaysian Insight asked TalentCorp what types of jobs are most likely to disappear as companies adopt more IR 4.0 technologies, such as automation, robotics and AI.

In response, the agency revealed the top 10 jobs that are most likely to be affected and those mostly likely to survive IR 4.0.

“Estimates provided by employers surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) showed that jobs expected to become increasingly redundant within the next few years are routine-based, middle-skilled white-collar roles that are susceptible to advances in new technologies and process automation,” TalentCorp said.

“They include, data entry clerks, accounting and payroll clerks, secretaries, auditors, bank tellers and cashiers.”

The top 10 jobs likely to disappear in the future are: data entry clerks, contact centre sales, clearing and forwarding agents, fashion models, legal secretaries, accounting associates and non-food product testers.

Also going the way of the dodo are operators of photographic products, labelling, bottling, packing and wood-working machines.

These jobs have between 97% and 99% chance of disappearing.

The top 10 jobs likely to survive are: dieticians and nutritionists, hotel professionals, education specialists, medical specialists, speech therapists, social welfare managers and psychologists.

Also set to survive are managers for hotels, education centres and health services firms.

These jobs have between 0% and 1% chance of disappearing.

TalentCorp said the above list was compiled from studies such as WEF’s Future of Jobs report 2018 and CSC’s own Automatability of occupations in Malaysia: automatability profiles of occupations on the 2017/2018 critical occupations list. – March 9, 2020.