The Future of Automation and American Jobs

There’s a lot of fear surrounding robots’ potential to steal jobs from American workers. The math seems simple – a human used to inspect objects on a production line, and now a robot completes inspection tasks – the job is simply replaced.

The reality, however, is far more complicated. Possibly more complicated than we can even imagine. Historically, automation has created jobs we weren’t aware could even exist.

So what does the future of automation and American jobs look like? And why are many optimistic?

Will Robots Create More Jobs Than They Replace?

This is a tricky question, but in the past automation techniques have created far more jobs than they’ve eliminated. Automation has also enabled economic and scientific benefits beyond the scope of job creation.

For example, before computers existed, humans completed and double-checked rigorous math equations. Once computers arrived and could complete the same tasks (at around 24,000 equations per second), there were fears that this would cause widespread elimination of jobs. There was some job elimination in the end, but computers gave rise to many different career fields, even entire industries, that were unimaginable at the time such as search engine optimization specialists, programmers and coders, data scientists and much more.

History has shown us that automation creates a need to adapt to a new trade, rather than simply eliminating jobs.

Who Will Benefit From Widespread Automation?

In short, everyone will see some kind of benefit from automation. There will be workers who have to adapt to new trades, but in the end automation can bring many benefits.

For example, automation is widely used in the automotive industry. Robots have drastically increased productivity for automotive manufacturers, but also helped them create a more consistent, higher-quality product. This benefits nearly everyone, as it is crucial for a product that holds people and their loved ones while moving 60mph to be made with precision and care.

Economists have studied the effect of automation for decades and have found that the jobs created by automation tend to be more cerebral and related to people’s innate abilities – improving job satisfaction and even quality of life.

It’s easy to be afraid of the consequences of increasing automation in the workplace, but if history is any indicator, we all may stand to benefit from it.

Related Blog Articles

Fitting Robots into the Plastics Industry with New Twists and Turns

Read

Five Ways Automation Helps Manufacturers Hit Their Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Goals

Read