Automation has permeated workplaces and threatens labour in the production process. Concurrently, European governments have expanded workfare which imposes stringent conditions and sanctions on unemployed workers after the onset of austerity. We explore how automation risk affects workfare support. Recent research finds that most routine workers ‘survive’ in their routine jobs. Despite avoiding unemployment, routine workers may face the threat of status decline as automation erodes the value of routine work. They may respond by differentiating themselves from lower-ranked social groups such as unemployed workers. Such boundary drawing may manifest views that the unemployed are less deserving of welfare. We thus posit that routine workers may support workfare to assuage their fears of status decline. We further explore if worsening economic hardship, proxied as rising unemployment rates over time, increases their support for workfare. We conducted pooled and multilevel analyses using data from the European Social Survey. We find that routine workers significantly support workfare. We also find that routine workers support workfare when economic hardship worsens, but oppose it when conditions ameliorate. Findings suggest that status threat is an important channel by which automation risk may affect workfare support, but its impact depends on social context, hence yielding country-differences. Worsening economic hardship may exacerbate routine workers’ status decline fears, and intensify their harsh views against unemployed workers. Automation risk may thus have a greater impact on workfare support under such conditions. Policymakers can use these findings to assess how workfare may be publicly received and under various economic conditions.

自动化已经渗透到工作场所，并威胁到生产过程中的劳动力。同时，欧洲政府扩大了工作规模，对紧缩政策实施后的失业工人施加了严格的条件和制裁。我们探索自动化风险如何影响工作支持。最近的研究发现，大多数常规工人在其常规工作中都“生存”。尽管避免了失业，但是随着自动化侵蚀日常工作的价值，日常工人可能会面临地位下降的威胁。他们可能会通过与低等社会群体（例如失业工人）区分开来做出回应。这种边界图可能表明，失业者应得的福利较少。因此，我们认为常规工人可以支持工作，以减轻他们对地位下降的恐惧。我们将进一步探讨，随着失业率随着时间的推移不断上升，加剧的经济困难是否会增加对工作福利的支持。我们使用来自欧洲社会调查的数据进行了汇总和多级分析。我们发现，日常工作人员极大地支持了工作。我们还发现，当经济困难加剧时，常规工人会支持工作，但是当条件改善时，反对这种工作。研究结果表明，身份威胁是自动化风险可能影响工作支持的重要渠道，但其影响取决于社会背景，因此会产生国家差异。经济困难加剧可能加剧常规工人地位下降的担忧，并加剧他们对失业工人的苛刻观点。因此，在这种情况下，自动化风险可能会对工作支持产生更大的影响。