While much of the election cycle has been about how trade agreements have hurt the American worker, this article, Why robots, not trade, are behind so many factory job losses, tells the real story. And, there is the fact that this move toward robotics is only going to accelerate.
It is an economy of scale and cost that is driving this revolution. One only needs to look at this YouTube video of an Amazon fulfillment center from 2014 to understand how robotics are replacing humans.
And then there is this: Last week I attended a technology conference where one speaker shared that, "It is estimated that 80 percent of all jobs paying $20 or less an hour will be eliminated within 10 years." Do you think that they can build a machine that makes hamburger patties, cooks them and drops french fries in a fryer and retrieves them? With the cost of labor going up, large corporations will be looking for technological solutions for even fast-food jobs.
New construction will also soon be dominated by automation. Can you say 3-D printing? The good news is that the "as built" environment will still need to be maintained or remodeled, so some construction and trade jobs will remain.
I am looking forward to robots replacing emergency managers! There will be no loss of institutional knowledge when that happens.
