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If a new forecast from the World Economic Forum is on the money, it could be a rough five years of job cuts for accounting roles, including bookkeepers, accounts payable clerks, and auditors, as new tech allows businesses to automate their work.
The WEF’s Future of Jobs Report, released Tuesday, surveyed more than 1,000 large global employers which, combined, account for more than 14 million workers around the world. According to the executives who responded, only a half-dozen roles including bank tellers, cashiers, and administrative assistants had a more dismal five-year forecast for negative net growth than accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll clerks, which they believe will shrink by nearly 20% between 2025 and 2030. In raw numbers, they’re also expected to lose the sixth-largest number of positions over the same period. Just behind the clerical roles, in the positions expected to lose the seventh-most number of jobs: accountants and auditors.
The driving force behind the gloomy prediction is one you’ve read before. Executives told WEF that the positions in greatest decline, which tended to be clerical, are at risk due mostly to “broadening digital access, AI and information processing technologies, and robots and autonomous systems.” It’s not all machines, though: “Aging and declining working-age populations and slower economic growth also contribute to the decline in clerical roles,” according to the report.
There are some types of jobs at even greater risk for replacement than those accounting roles. In bad news for us, third place among the job areas with skills that generative AI can replace right now: marketing and media.