Numerous pessimistic headlines have proclaimed technologies such as robotics to be the death of human jobs, as more and more of our work is automated.  New research from The Century Foundation explores whether this is actually the case, and explores the impact of robotics on work in the United States over the past decade.

The report suggests that robots have not caused the wastage of jobs across the country that many predicted, but that certain groups of workers, regions and industries have been vulnerable.

The researchers examined the role of industrial robotics during the 2009-2017 period characterized by the Great Recession.  It’s a period in which the use of industrial robots doubled in the United States.

“There have been clear losers with increased automation—namely, younger, less-educated manufacturing workers in the Midwest and younger, minority workers in these industries in particular,” the authors say. “These industries not only have the highest number of robots in use, but are also experiencing the fastest growth in robot adoption.”

Robots in the workplace

The authors go on to suggest that much of the impact of robotics on wages and jobs has been offset by the economic recovery seen over the past decade.  They believe that without such a recovery, industrial robots would have replaced many more workers than they actually did.

The report identifies a number of areas with high levels of robot investment, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Detroit, with a total of 262 areas identified as most affected.  This has seen the number of manufacturing robots double over the past decade, from 0.813 per 1,000 workers to 1.974 per 1,000 workers.

This investment has typically been accompanied by employment gains however, especially for certain types of workers, including less-educated men, who are typically believed to be first in the robot’s crosshairs.  While this demographic have largely kept their jobs, the authors do nonetheless suggest that their wages have suffered due to the introduction of more robots into the workplace.

They go on to suggest that at the current pace of growth in robotic investment, there is still considerable potential for these un-skilled workers to continue to benefit from increased robotization of the workplace.

The authors hope that the experience of young Midwestern workers can be illustrative for workers across the country, and indeed further afield, as they attempt to remain competitive in the face of technological investment.