Are robot workers more likely to take our jobs or our wages?

Any discussion about automation, understandably, gets some worried that their job is about to be taken by the tin-plated hoards. However, new research, from Barclays, should assuage fears – a bit.

The bank has found that robots won’t take your job away, but they might stop you getting a pay rise.

The Impact Series, authored by Barclays’ Research team and supported by the Barclays Social Innovation Facility, found that new technology acts as a drag on wage growth as it reduces skill-set needed to do a job, in turn expanding the pool of potential workers.

However, automation often lowers costs to produce goods and services, which in turn increases demand for them, resulting in new job growth.