Almost 150,000 jobs in Birmingham are at “high risk” of being lost to automation, according to research published by Labour MPs.

And working class occupations will be the hardest hit.

The findings were published by a Labour think tank called Red Shift, at an event in the House of Commons chaired by Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood.

Leading members of Red Shift include Liam Byrne, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill.

Research by the House of Commons Library found that 2,128,000 jobs nationwide are at high risk of automation. This is about a quarter of low paid jobs.

Red Shift is attempting to spark debate about how to deal with the problem, but Mr Byrne has already suggested ideas including a radical reform of universities.

He said: “If what you learn on a three year degree becomes quickly dated after the moment you leave, then one has to ask why are we offering three year degrees? Why not ten year degrees – offered a year at a time every decade of your life?”

Other proposals include increasing corporation tax to help pay for a massive re-training programme.

The prospect of increased automation is sometimes called the “rise of the robots”, but that’s a little misleading.

Most of us would think of a robot as a machine with moving parts. The problem isn’t so much that we’re getting better at making those – it’s that we’re getting better at making computer software.

A self-driving car

Transportation is an example of an industry that might be affected. The day is approaching when self-driving vehicles will be a common sight.

That may be good news for supermarket chains, which need to get stock from their warehouses to their shops, but clearly it’s bad news for lorry drivers.

Shop workers are also likely to be particularly hard hit.

But even if you can create new jobs to replace the old ones, there’s a problem.

Increased automation means increased productivity. Businesses can make more money with fewer staff.

That’s a good thing in many ways, as low productivity is seen as one of the biggest problems facing the UK economy today.

Liam Byrne MP
Liam Byrne MP

But it means that people who receive the profits from successful businesses are likely to get richer, while many of those who depend on selling their labour to survive are going to find their jobs become more insecure and their wages fall.

That’s not only unfair, but it makes for an angry and unstable society.

Maybe, however, there is an alternative. Perhaps we can make automation work for all of us?

That’s the question Red Shift is asking.

There has to be action to ensure wealth is shared fairly, said Mr Byrne. He called this a “moral economy”, warning: “Without a plan to recreate a semblance of the moral economy, I can tell you technophobia is going to become a national religion.”

One of the side effects of automation was a tendency towards the creation of monopolies, he said.

Firms like Amazon, for example, don’t really have any competition.

Looking at changes to the US economy, Mr Byrne said: “They are assumed unprecedented market power – including the power to hold down wages – and mark-up prices ... and this largely explains why wage share of national income is falling.”

Solutions might include a major increase in investment in skills and education, and a rethink of the university system.

But there is also a need for government action to break up monopolies, he said.

“This will need tougher competition policy to breakup new monopolies, proper regulation of monopsony (when workers have only one potential employer), new minimum wage rules, stronger collective bargaining and corporate governance reform to make sure new skills earn the pay they should.”

Shabana Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood
Shabana Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood

And the Government should start drawing up plans now to re-train people working in areas which it knows will see massive job losses, such as transportation and retail.

He also said it should be easier for Government to borrow money to invest in education and training.

This would mean re-thinking existing Treasury rules, which allow for borrowing to invest in physical infrastructure – such as buildings or roads – but count education and training as “revenue spending” which should be funded through taxation.

There’s evidence that voters are already worried – which means there could be rewards for the political party which is ready to take action.

A survey by Opinium for Red Shift found that a third of workers think it is likely that human jobs or tasks will be replaced by automation in the next 10 years.

But this rises to nearly half in the North East and the West Midlands.

Mr Byrne said: “We are at a fork in the road. Unless we take dramatic steps now to help people adapt to changing technology, it’ll be impossible to reverse massive trends in rising inequality for the rest of the 21st century.”