The best paid new jobs are being given to men as women are overlooked, new figures have indicated.
A report by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) found almost 400,000 jobs held by women in the public sector, banking and retail have been lost since 2011.
The charity warned of a “double-whammy” that has severely impacted female workers, who have lost out on the best paid jobs in the “new economy” and faced the worst of austerity measures in the public sector.
Benedict Dellot, head of the RSA Future Work Centre, believes the “cliché of tech bros” was “entirely warranted”.
He said: “The advent of autonomous vehicles, personal voice assistants and picking and packing machines in warehouses shows that the age of automation is well and truly upon us.
“Contrary to what many people believe, this has not led to widespread job losses.”
With unemployment at its lowest level in 45 years and many good quality jobs being created in the technology sector, Dellot added that “forces of creative destruction can be brutal for those on the losing side.”
The research has found that just one in 20 new coders and programmers are women and the RSA head felt this is one example of the mounting evidence that reflects women being left behind in the new economy.
“We knew that the tech industry was highly gendered but the scale of the problem is shocking” he said.
The RSA’s Field Guide to the Future of Work found programmers and software developers as well as HR managers and directors were among the top 20 fastest growing occupations, while retail cashiers and checkout operators were among the fastest shrinking.
Female workers have further lost out because of the fall in private-sector roles such as retail cashiers, personal assistants and hairdressers, according to the analysis.
In spite of the bleak situation, Dellot said there is still time to prevent the crisis worsening as many jobs are yet to be affected in this early stage of automation.
The RSA executive said we must now look to government, employers and educators to ensure that everyone can have “shares in the spoils of new technology”.
Suggested solutions include establishing Personal Training Accounts to power lifelong learning and career changes, experimenting with Job Security Councils - to give workers more say about which technology is utilised within the workplace and shifting away from “excessive monitoring and surveillance in the workplace”.