The Pandemic is Ushering in the Robots?

The World Economic Forum reckons that the covid-19 pandemic is speeding up the replacement, by machines, of around 20 million factory jobs world-wide (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54622189). They predict that most of these losses occur by 2025. Unremarkably, the sectors that appear most at risk from automation, are routine or manual activities in administration and data processing. The Forum think that the losses could be somewhat counter-balanced by the creation of new jobs in care, big data and the green economy. As these are dependent on different skill sets, they suggest that inequality will be substantially worsened. I suspect that the transition will not be easy, as many people have been pushed into economic crisis mode, by the virus.