ARE ROBOTS GOING TO KILL YOUR NEXT JOB OR CREATE IT?
Crunch the Numbers
Fast Company
CAMILLE SWEENEY AND JOSH GOSFIELD | Fast Company
EVERYONE AGREES THAT SOME JOBS FOR HUMANS WILL BE LOST TO ROBOTS, AND SOME JOBS FOR HUMANS WILL BE MADE BECAUSE OF OUR 'BOT OVERLORDS. BUT THERE'S A GROWING DEBATE ABOUT THE MATH. LET'S CRUNCH THE NUMBERS WITH CYBORG HANDS!
This much we know: The robots are coming. Every day there’s a story about a new job that a robot has been designed to do, sushi chef, security guard, surgeon, first responder, and job interviewer. There are nearly a quarter of a million robots running already in U.S. factories, second only to Japan.
According to the Robotics Industries Associations, this year in North America there has been double-digit growth in the number of robots sold in a variety of industries.
Everyone agrees that some jobs for humans will be lost to robots, and some jobs for humans will be created because of robots. But there is a growing debate about the math.
Will the robotics revolution be an aggregate job creator or job killer for humans?
Pros and Cons
First: THE ROBOT-AS-JOB-CREATOR ARGUMENT
The Robot-as-Job-Creator boosters include robotics manufacturers, industry lobbyists, and the many companies (such as Amazon) that use robots. In a recent brief to the Congressional Robotics Advisory, Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation reported that robotics have created 10 million (human) jobs through 2011 with tens of millions more to come in the next 20 years or so. Robot penetration in U.S. companies, said Burnstein, is only at about the 10% mark so far, adding that, “A very large segment of small- and medium-size companies who may have the most to gain are just now beginning to seriously investigate robotics.” Robot advocates make three basic points: ....