According to job site Indeed, it appears that jobs in Britain are divided in terms of how well generative AI can achieve them.
The company's new UK Jobs & Hiring Trends Report 2024 shows that almost a quarter of UK jobs have the highest exposure to generative AI, meaning the technology will unlock at least 80% of the skills associated with the job can perform at a good level. On the other hand, 27% of jobs had the lowest exposure, with GenAI only able to perform less than half of the required skills at a good level.
The report also shows that 0.05% of job postings in the country mention terms related to generative AI. This may sound like a small percentage, but Indeed points out that this is a 26-fold increase since the beginning of the year. It also sees this figure increasing next year as organizations continue to use such tools.
Improving disruption
There have been several discussions about whether AI is a good or bad force when it comes to the job market. Some argue it will wipe out large swaths of the workforce, while others believe it will increase productivity and give workers space to address problems. more meaningful work.
According to Jack Kennedy, Senior UK Economist at Indeed, “the data shows that while GenAI can learn some tasks quite well, it is unlikely to completely replace many jobs. Instead, as the technology continues to learn skills related with certain jobs, it will magnify or transform some more than others.”
True to other recent trends, Indeed also found that mentions mentioning hybrid or remote work fell to 14.4% from 16.3% in May. Many leading companies are beginning to recall staff to the office, although in many cases this has been met with strong resistance.
However, other research has shown that there are plenty of companies looking to maintain hybrid working arrangements on a permanent basis, with 89% investing in technology to support hybrid working.
Job seekers continue to be eager to find jobs that offer remote and hybrid conditions, with Indeed finding that searches for these jobs have increased tenfold since before the pandemic. However, the share of such searches has fallen slightly, from 3% in early 2023, the peak, to 2.5% in October.
As a way for recruiters to attract more workers to the office, more and more companies are starting to offer four-day work weeks as a kind of compromise. The number of mentions mentioning this has increased, but still only totals 0.8%. But interestingly, it is the jobs that work the least remotely and offer the most shortened work weeks (1%), while only 0.5% to 0.7% of remote jobs offer the same conditions.