The forthcoming robot revolution threatens to exacerbate the North-South divide, creating jobs in London and the South East, but destroying those elsewhere in the country, an economic think tank has warned.

Automation will boost demand for managers and IT workers, but trigger job losses even in skilled trades and some traditional professions.

Overall, there should be no net loss of jobs but there will be a shift in the type and location of those positions, according to a study from Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

Manufacturing employment overall should even increase, edging up by around 0.8pc over the next four years to 2021, the report indicates. Workers will also need to retrain or improve their skills to have a better chance of staying in work in the long-term.

“Lower-skill professions or those which can be automated more easily will see a decline in the level of employment. Administrative and secretarial jobs are expected to decline by 10pc between 2017 and 2021. Also, process, plant and machine operatives decline by 1pc and elementary occupations by 10pc,” the report said.