Robots will be needed to fill manufacturing jobs as the ageing population expands and younger Australians choose alternative career paths, according to the Advanced Robotics in Manufacturing Hub and the Australian Cobotics Centre.
ARM Hub chief executive Corri Stewart told a parliamentary inquiry into developing advanced manufacturing in Australia on Tuesday that the country faces a “population decline challenge” given the nation’s 2020 fertility rate of 1.66, which is well below the replacement rate of 2.1 needed to maintain the population.
The current old-age dependency ratio – the number of people aged 65 years and over relative to the working age population (15-64 years) – was 26 per cent last year but is projected by the federal government’s Centre for Population to reach 37.7 per cent by 2060-61, based on estimates taken last year.
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