Nearly Half Of All Retail Jobs Could Be Lost To Automation Within 10 Years

Between 6 million and 7.5 million retail industry jobs are vulnerable to automation within ten years, according to an exhaustive study released this week. The report, by Cornerstone Capital Group, concluded that the jobs of as many as 47% of the 16 million Americans currently working in retail could be made redundant by highly-automated e-commerce and other innovations. In-store roles most vulnerable to automation include cashiers and order clerks while salespeople and freight handlers are slightly less exposed. Jobs that require a personal touch like store greeters would also be insulated from direct replacement by robots or apps. But increasing competitive pressure could still make such jobs too expensive for stores to justify. Cornerstone’s study points out that while sales roles are just as likely to be filled by women as men, 73% of retail cashiers are women—and that job is considered “one of the most easily automatable” in the entire economy. Amazon, for instance, is developing a convenience store format called Amazon Go that has no cashiers. The plan is for sensors and intelligent vision to automatically detect what customers have in their carts and then bill them when they walk out the door. But details are still being kept under wraps, and in March, Amazon delayed the store’s opening while it hones the technology. Read more at Forbes.