Northern cities are most at risk of job losses because of automation, according to new research statistics by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show.

A total 741,219 jobs across the North are at high-risk of automation and over a third of these roles (267,888) of these are within cities. This means over half the jobs in England deemed high-risk are in the North (51%). Locations such as Hull, Newcastle upon Tyne and Leicester, and are some of the places where a proportion of over 10 per cent of jobs are at highest risk of automation, with the city of Hull totalling the most at 12,856 roles under threat.

Further analysis of the data looking into the predictions of occupations in England and skills needed for the future was conducted by Flexioffices to forecast if England is facing a potential skills gap in the future, due the increasing use of AI and automation.

The North most at risk

The North has seven out of the top 10 cities considered at high-risk of automation. Yorkshire and Humber’s average proportion of jobs at high-risk is 10 per cent followed by both the North East and North West at nine per cent.

In England the city with the highest proportion of high-risk of job automation is Hull with an estimated 13.5 per cent of jobs (12,856 roles) potentially falling fate to technology. In the North West, Preston has 13.3 per cent roles at high-risk, followed by Carlisle with 12.4 per cent.

The data not only shows which areas have the highest proportion of roles under threat but how many jobs that equates to, Leeds has the highest number at 27,180 followed by Birmingham at 24,381 and then Manchester at 17,301, this is likely to the bustling restaurant and bar scene as well as surrounding countryside for farming.

According to the data around 1.5 million jobs in England are at high risk of automation. Low-skilled roles are most at risk with the North occupying the highest proportion of these types of roles.

England’s most at risk job is waiters and waitresses with a massive 73 per cent facing probability of automation, other roles such as bar staff (71%), catering assistants (69%), cleaners (68%), taxi, bus and train drivers (61%), construction workers (59%), telesales (58%), retail workers (64%) as well as bank and post office workers (59%) are most likely to be made redundant in the not-too-distant future.