Race and Jobs at Risk of Being Automated in the Age of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an ongoing health and economic crisis. The contagious nature of the virus has necessitated physical distancing and led to an economic shutdown in early 2020. The resulting increases in unem- ployment have disproportionately impacted Black and La- tino workers who are overrepresented in jobs that cannot be done remotely and in jobs considered to be frontline or es- sential, putting them at higher risk both of being laid off and of being exposed to the virus. The pandemic is likely to accelerate the automation of jobs and the emergence of the network economy: a network of internet-connected people and devices, “as employers invest in technology to adapt the production process to safeguard against current and potential future pandemics” (Chernoff and Warman 2020; Carson 2020). Thus far, automation and “advancing technologies have mainly replaced the routine tasks of low-wage workers, while the incomes robots gener- ate flow to wealthier capital owners” (Bloom and Prettner 2020). While the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to reinforce this trend in the near-term, automation will continue to have vastly different effects for various industries, educa- tional institutions, and workers of different educational, income, and racial and ethnic backgrounds. This analysis focuses on jobs at the highest and lowest risk of being automated, and on the acceleration of automation by the COVID-19 pandemic. We address the following ques- tions: (1) Which occupations are most and least susceptible to automation in the next two decades? (2) How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected jobs that can be automated versus those that require in-person participation? (3) How will developments in automation affect Black and Hispanic communities and institutions? and (4) What interventions are necessary to prepare Black and Hispanic communities for jobs that are at a lower risk of being automated? Advances in artificial intelligence and automation have con- tributed to achievement gaps in the workplace, with employ- ers reporting a deficit of skilled workers to meet their needs (Danaher and Nyholm 2020; Grob-Zakhary and Hjarrand 2017). There are labor shortages in specialized sectors such that many American businesses are currently unable to find qualified workers to fill available jobs. Automation without strategic intervention will increase the skills gap, the wage gap, and economic inequality. Black and Hispanic commu- nities will face unique challenges in labor transitions as a result of automation.