Australians facing massive job losses due to computerization

About 5 million Australian jobs may be replaced by computers in the next 20 years, a report stated on Tuesday.

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) report predicted almost 40 percent of existing jobs will disappear because of technological advancements.

CEDA chief executive Stephen Martin told News Corp the vast majority of Australians will need to have a much higher degree of skill that particularly embraces computerization.

"It's tempting to think a lot of what has come out of this report is a bit science fiction-like, that it's something out of Flash Gordon," Martin said.

"But you've got to remember we've only had the World Wide Web for a relatively brief period of time, and look what that's done for the world as we know it," he added.

Martin said automation has replaced some jobs in agriculture, mining and manufacturing and will affect other areas such as the health sector, which has largely been untouched by technological change.

The report said there is a high probability that occupations such as accountants, estate agents and economists will not exist or will be significantly degraded by the 2030s.

It said information and telecommunication advances will probably affect jobs from telemarketers to insurance underwriters to radiologists, while in other professions computers will make individuals far more productive than they are now and significantly reduce the demand for these types of workers.

Australia will be left behind if it is not planning and investing in the right areas, while it also needs to reconsider how it deals with reskilling workers as particular fields of employment disappear, said the report. Endi