It’s a common idea that robots will soon steal our jobs, even though there is little or no evidence to support the notion. The Luddite weavers in 1811 thought weaving machines were going to cause mass unemployment, the advent of the tractor has reduced agricultural employment to reduce by 95% since 1910; yet employment participation remains stable.
Jobs are lost due to automation within an industry but are made up for by jobs in new areas. Education is our defence against robots, no one can predict what the new jobs of the future will be, remaining flexible in our abilities will allow us to take up the new jobs in the future.
Economist David Autor discusses this issues in depth in a recent TED talk