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Most followed: Robots could take your job warns BoE

Published: 07:34 13 Nov 2015 EST

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Can you believe it. Robots coming over here, stealing our jobs.

Well that could be the reality, according to the Bank of England today, which suggested some 15mln jobs are at risk of being taken over by robots in the coming decades.

Andy Haldane, the BoE’s chief economist, used research to work out the chances of a range of jobs becoming automated, and multiplied this by the number of people employed in each sector.

He arrived at the 15mln figure, almost half of the number of working people in Britain.

"If these visions were to be realised, however futuristic this sounds, the labour market patterns of the past three centuries would shift to warp speed," Haldane said.

Sales and customer service workers are most endangered, with a 70% chance of automation, according to the bank.

Haldane said: "Machines are already undertaking tasks which were unthinkable - if not unimaginable – a decade ago.

"The driverless car was science fiction no more than a decade ago. Today it is scientific fact."

One of the least likely roles to become automated is that of management, with just a 15% likelihood.

This will be good news for Elisabeth Murdoch, who has joined the board of luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo (LON:CHOO).

The daughter of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has previously held positions at a number of media and technology companies.

Another heavyweight business figure joining a board is former Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh, who is teaming up with Asia-focused bank HSBC (LON:HSBA).

Two of the bank’s longest-serving non-executive directors, Sir Simon Robertson and Rona Fairhead, are retiring.

The final bit of boardroom business came from  Legal & General (LON:LGEN) chairman John Stewart, who will step down next year.

After six years at the insurer, Stewart said the post-financial criss work “has been successfully delivered,” and that "the time will be right to pass on the baton."

Away from the boardroom, online car marketplace Auto Trader thrilled investors with a maiden dividend after sales ramped up in the first half of the year.

The company, which listed in March, is cutting costs and saw revenues grow 8% to £138.2mln.

Impressive, but nothing compared to football giant Manchester United (NYSE:MANU), which reckons it is on course for an almost 40% rise in revenue this year.

The club, which has been linked with a world-record deal to bring former star Cristiano Ronaldo back to Old Trafford, was boosted by its return to the Champions League and the first payment of the world-record £750mln 10-year kit deal with Adidas.

The figures also included the sale of disappointing winger Angel Di Maria, who was bought for £59.7mln before being sold for £43mln a year later, netting the club around a £16.7mln loss.

The Red Devils are expected to make between £500mln and £510mln in revenue this year, a record for a British football club, as no club has gone beyond the £500mln mark.

On the small cap corporate front, independent television producer DCD Media (LON:DCD) has been informed ITV has axed its prime time game show Celebrity Squares.

The show, hosted by Warwick Davis, will not be coming back next year after the first two series failed to live up to expectations.

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