I'm retired, mostly, so I looked up jobs I used to do and the honorary one I still do. Jobs I used to do can be 44% done by machine - but the tasks that are listed as being done by machine are not ones that I did, nor are most of the ones listed as still left to be done by humans. Whoever designed the algorithm clearly has no idea what most jobs actually entail.
However, I do think that the general thrust is correct. A lot of the jobs that people do today will be at least partly replaced by smart machines in the future. But really, is this anything more than we have seen all our lives? and our parents? Think about it.
When I entered the workforce, there were only about half a dozen computers in Australia, electronic calculators did not exist, photocopiers did not exist, fax machines hardly existed. Just in this very limited field, think about how many jobs have disappeared? How many typists are working today? My first job title was "computer", which meant what it said - I did calculations with a pencil and paper, and these were checked by another "computer".
As technology improves, more jobs are lost, but in fact this is something that has been happening ever since the start of the industrial revolution. Maybe a bit faster today, but still the same sort of thing.
Go back another generation, and think of all the cleaning staff put out of work by vacuum cleaners, and all the labourers put out of work by forklifts, ostlers, farriers etc put out of work by motor transport, lamplighters by electric light, stokers by mechanical stokers.
I don't really see it as something particularly new. It has resulted in a lot more leisure time for ordinary workers in my lifetime. Working hours per week have possibly increased slightly, but consider that when I started work, most people started work at fifteen, today few start before their early twenties, often mid twenties. When I started, almost nobody got more than two weeks annual leave, long service leave was available only to a very few who worked more than fifteen years with one of a few large employers. So the average working hours over a lifetime are definitely significantly less.
