The Milwaukee-based staffing business surveyed 19,000 employers in 44 countries with questions focused on the next two years.

“The focus on robots eliminating jobs is distracting us from the real issue,” said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup chairman and CEO. “More and more robots are being added to the workforce, but humans are too.”

The report, titled “Humans Wanted, Robots Need You,” found 16 percent of respondents expect to hire more workers with information technology skills. That’s five times more than those expecting to cut IT workers.

More volatility is expected in production and manufacturing, as 25 percent of respondents say they expect to hire more people next year, while 20 percent say they will employ fewer people.

Prising notes that for the past three years, this survey has found a majority of employers are planning to hire more people due to automation.

Of the 41 percent of companies that plan to automate tasks in the next two years, 24 percent say they plan to create more jobs, compared to 18 percent for those with no plans to automate.

See the full report here:
http://www.manpowergroup.com/wps/wcm/connect/84b36237-eb5e-460b-bd52-35c28ab187a9/MPG_WEF_SkillsRevolution_4.0_paper.pdf