Do Industrial Robots Really Have A Positive Impact On Employment?

Create Jobs or Destroy Jobs?

Do Industrial Robots Really Have A Positive Impact On Employment?

KUKA

Frank Tobe | The Robot Report

There are at least 350,000 people directly employed by and in the industrial robotics industry. However, industrial robots are not made in the U.S.; they are made in Japan, Korea and Europe, consequently more than half of those 350,000 jobs are offshore.

There are ancillary providers of components, software and other services for robots and installations but these jobs are hard to quantify. In general manufacturing there are known multipliers but in robotics, there is no known formula to extrapolate just how many jobs in these ancillary businesses are attributable to robotics.

Germany, with hourly rates almost 50% higher than in the U.S., has remained globally competitive: they have twice as many robots per 10,000 workers as do Americans.

Early this year CBS News 60 Minutes aired a segment asking but not answering the question: Are robots hurting job growth?

A industry sponsored report - under the banner Robots Create Jobs - cited the following reasons why they opposed the CBS 60 Minutes piece and why robotics really does create jobs ...

Read the whole story at The Robot Report