How Will Technology Affect Colorado Jobs?
As technology changes impact workplaces across the country, how Colorado jobs and the economy will be affected is unclear. Coloradans will see changes in how job duties are done, the number of jobs available within certain occupations and industries, and even the elimination of some jobs. We must prepare for these shifts now to protect Colorado workers whose jobs are at risk of disappearing or drastically changing.
Related: Future of Work Hub
In a new brief, we explore how technology might affect Colorado jobs as part of our continuing research on the future of work. The brief was completed by University of Colorado Denver graduate student Lauren Whynott as part of a capstone project for her Masters in Public Administration program.
Specifically, Whynott maps risk of automation for certain Colorado jobs and counties. The brief also examines which counties across the state have the greatest number of jobs considered to be at high risk of automation, as well as those counties with the largest concentration of these occupations.
Related: Will Self-Driving Cars Kill Colorado Jobs?
In counties with the greatest number of high-risk jobs, Coloradans can expect challenges associated with workers in these occupations finding new jobs or adapting to new duties. However, in many of these counties with larger populations, there are diverse occupation pools because of the variety of industries. If workers are displaced, there may be more opportunities in these areas to find new work. However, for the counties with a large share of high-risk jobs relative to the number of total jobs available, that pool gets smaller and workers there may experience more difficulty adapting to the changes new technology will bring.
Related: Robots: Where They Are & What to Know
As far are certain occupations go, Whynott determined out of the top 10 Colorado jobs with the largest five-year percentage decrease, seven have an automation probability of 50 percent or more. Many of these roles are related to the oil and gas industry.
Learn more about which jobs and counties are at risk by reading and sharing “Technological Changes & Colorado Jobs” now.
