Press Release / 14.06.2022
Concordia Employers’ Confederation launches the research report on “The impact of technology on two sectors in Romania: Auto and Petrol & Gas”.
The COVID 19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of transformation and automation, and technological progress is predicted to lead to the transformation or disappearance of millions of jobs globally. Concordia Employers’ Confederation wanted to find out what is the impact of the 4.0 revolution on jobs and skills in the two fields in Romania. The study presents the occupations most at risk, the skills that will no longer be needed in the future, the new opportunities that are opening up and what can facilitate the transition to the jobs of the future.
The research was carried out with the assistance of KPMG and IPSOS and it is part of the project “Renewed social dialogue for the new world of work. Job transitions & digitalization in two industrial sectors in CEE countries – Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. WorkTransitionCEE”, project co-financed by European Union.
The analysis was conducted by interviewing 109 managers from the two industries and 1,713 employees and revealed 96 occupations potentially at risk due to the digital revolution in the four participating companies.
Each of the two industries has a number of factors influencing their change. For the automotive industry, electric batteries and hybrid mobility, connectivity and digitization and the semiconductor crisis are some of the trends driving the transformation of the way we work, and for the Oil and Gas sector, an aging workforce, price fluctuations and decarbonisation are among the reasons main.
Although quite familiar with the growing importance of technology’s impact on their industries, employees are not fully aware of its impact on their own workplace. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of employees know how important technology is, but only 5% of workers surveyed agreed that their industries may need fewer employees to perform. According to the study, 6 out of 10 employees appreciate the technological change as necessary and that their implementation is done at an appropriate pace. However, more than a third (35%) feel the pace is too fast and less than 10% (mainly in the oil and gas industry) think it is somehow too slow.
The research revealed that in both sectors there will be a decline in manual skills, but also in those related to manipulation, data processing, reporting and those aimed at repetitive activities. The key skills that are expected to be less important in the future in the Automotive industry are: visual acuity, communication, precision control, selective attention, manual dexterity, endurance and monitoring, and the most affected could be jobs in the departments of Logistics, Maintenance and Quality Control.
In the case of the Oil and Gas industry, the skills that will have less and less weight are those related to active listening, coordination, quality control, analysis, critical thinking and persuasion that will drive change in support and administrative operations, in shipping and refinery.
For more details about the research, you can connect on June 30, from 3 p.m., on Concordia’s Facebook page to the webinar “Impact of technology on two sectors in Romania: Auto and Petrol & Gas”, in which Mădălina Racovitan, KPMG Partner, participates. Alina Stepan, IPSOS Country Manager, Elena Baboi, Deputy Director of the Department of Labor Market Analysis, Employment and Professional Training Programs of the Workforce, ANOFM and Radu Comșa, Education & Training Dept. NBS coordinator.
This report is developed under the umbrella of WorkTransitionCEE, a project co-financed by the European Union, which brings together six representative social partners from Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, both unions and employers, to better understand the risks, challenges and opportunities in Industry 4.0 for the labor transition in Central and Eastern Europe.
