Banking industry could lose 100K jobs in the next five years
Wells Fargo predicts that automation will replace several back and front office jobs, but technology will create demand for new roles.
As banks invest more in digital technology, thousands of positions could vanish over the next five years. Artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing will play a bigger role in banking when it comes to approving loans, taking payments and detecting fraud.
“Our conclusion is still that this will be the biggest reduction in U.S. bank headcount in history with job cuts accelerating once the economy fully recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. ”
Roles like branch managers, call center employees and tellers will decline, while technologists, cybersecurity experts, developers and data analysts will be in greater demand.
“It's really a swap to bots from bankers,” said Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo. “Developers are the new bankers. The chief technology officers at banks are now some of the most important people at banks.”
The disappearance of these jobs could resemble the massive contraction in manufacturing work in the 1980s and 1990s, according to Wells Fargo. The pandemic is speeding up automation in several sectors, especially those struggling to hire workers. Restaurants have been among the most visible adopters of robots and other technology, for instance.