Mace, an international consultancy and building company, claimed that technological advances will mean human builders are replaced by machines.
In Australia, the construction industry employs approximately 1,154,500 people in both full time and part time work, which is around 9.4 per cent of the total workforce, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The report, titled Moving To Industry 4.0 stated: “The construction sector is going to look very different in a decade or two — and so is its workforce.”
When it comes to the robot revolution, one of the hardest-hit jobs in the industry is forecast to be bricklaying.
Companies like Perth-based Fastbrick Robotics tout its globally patented 3D robotic bricklaying system designed to improve “the safety, speed, accuracy, cost and waste management in the global construction industry”.
The report from Mace, which focused on Britain, claimed the 73,000 bricklayers on British building sites is expected to fall to just 4,300 in two decades.
Carpenters, internal fitters and labourers will tumble as well as painters and decorators, the study forecasted.
The creation of New York-based company Construction Robotics, has already replaced humans on a handful of sites across America.
Its equipment is made up of a conveyor-belt, mortar pump and robotic arm. One builder helps feed the bricks into the machine, which are picked up by the robotic arm, slathered in mortar and placed on the wall.
But it will still need human supervision to watch over it — so we won’t be entirely obsolete.
[Ref: news.com.au]
