Problem is there are a lot of jobs that cant be automated until we invent some significantly better robots Care workers Nurses Doctors Teachers Priests designers, engineers etc etc dont have jobs that lend themselves to automation Many of the jobs that are suitable already are. My field for example - I write software and design interface hardware for production test machines - once started everything is automated to test and sort thousands of parts with no human intervention. Just a few operators can run an entire test floor. One factory I worked at in Singapore even has a small train that circulated the floor to take the parts to and from the test machines - this is a floor about the size of 2 football pitches
It is estimated that 40% of jobs in the USA will go to automation within the next two decades. The UK will lose less, but it will lose a large number of jobs in this way - driving, checkouts, call centres, manufacturing, will all be victims. Like the lass industrial revolution, there will be changes. I suspect more jobs in "leisure" activities, so gym coaches, activity leaders (walking, sports, etc), leisure service providers (oo-er!) and adult teachers will be in demand. There will also be new jobs that we haven't even thought of yet - email/internet marketing, mobile app development, etc - are all recent (last 20 years) developments.
I can see less call for teachers/lecturers - have one teacher giving a lesson to students across the entire area (or even country), with teaching assistants in the class room to deal with any questions. Good teachers could thrive while poor ones are out of a job. Some universities were reported to be doing this earlier this year with oversubscribed courses.
Yeah all models are flawed. This however is working for many businesses today. Japan revitalised their economy many years ago based on automation of course.
Move with the times and retrain or you will get left behind. Same when other jobs have been replaced in the past. If you are in a line of work like this then start now.
Given the massive changes in the last 20 years, things that one could never predict could happen, like the rise of the mobile phone, social media, etc, it is very hard to predict what 2040 will look like. I'll be 75, if I'm still here, it is the people that are 15-35 now that will largely shape the future of our country. In my industry, (music, the CD was just about hanging in in 2000, but was dying on it's ass in 2010. The MP3 / WAV file took over in the intervening years, but is now largely redundant for most people, other than DJs & streaming is the norm, with a small growing market for vinyl records again, which the CD was meant to replace in the 80's. (I'm not sure who was predicting that, but it is a growth area, although quite niche). Music revenue is now more about live performance, film tie ins, advertising, etc. Every sector will be unique to some extent.