File photo: Visitors admire St.Paul's Cathedral from the restaurant floor of the Tate Modern gallery in London. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

LONDON (Reuters) - Women in Britain are much more likely than men to be working in jobs that are threatened by the advance of technology, the country’s statistics office said on Monday.

Women held more than 70 percent of the 1.5 million jobs believed to be at high risk of automation, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The three occupations with the highest probability of automation were waiters, shelf-fillers and elementary sales roles, the ONS said.

But well-educated women were more at risk than men too.

“Even among degree-educated workers, three in four men are in jobs at low risk of automation, while only six in 10 women are,” the Resolution Foundation, a think tank, said.

Young people also faced a bigger challenge with more than 15 percent of 20-year-olds at high risk of losing their jobs to automation, although the threat shrank as their careers developed.

“Workers naturally obtain further skills and become more knowledgeable in their field as they progress further in their careers,” the ONS said.