OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2017. Czechs can expect radical changes in the labour market in the coming years. In fact, up to 53 percent of today’s jobs could disappear in future.

That’s the message addressed delegates at the conference Direction Work 4.0 in Prague.

He told the conference that some professions in the Czech Republic could be expected to die out completely. Others will be transformed. But the main task facing future governments in this regard will be handling the consequences of these changes for society.

Also speaking at Monday’s conference was the Social Democrats’ minister of labour and social affairs. She said that there were fears that digitisation and robotisation would lead to the demise of many jobs.

Change will come, Minister said, but new professions will also arise and more people will be needed in, for instance, services.

Vladim?r ?pidla compared digitisation to the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, which it took the society of the day decades to come to terms.

According to a Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs study, up to a 10th of jobs – or over 400,000 positions – could disappear within just two decades due to the increased use of robots.

The ministry has already produced an employment plan for the coming years. It includes, for instance, allowing workers time off for education, tax advantages for jobs in the services and special loans for the self-employed.

New technology could have a deep impact on about one third of all jobs, or around 1.4 million positions in total.