Science & Technology
Robots Replacing Manufacturing Jobs
- 27 Jun 2019
- 2 min read
As per a report by analysis firm Oxford Economics, it is predicted that robots are going to replace 10% of jobs in manufacturing sector in next 10 years.
- Manufacturing could lose 20 million positions replaced by robots by 2030.
- Each new industrial robot is going to wipe out 1.6 manufacturing jobs.
- The report states that it is expected that automation should boost the economy as a whole, but it is likely to create greater inequality.
- The pockets of workers most vulnerable to automation can often be found in rural areas with a traditional, labor-intensive industrial base.
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have also expressed concern over the risk of rising inequality.
- The report also highlights the importance of taking policy action to reduce the likely impact of robotization in these vulnerable areas.
- People displaced from jobs are likely to find that the services sector have also been squeezed by automation.
- It states that more than half of U.S. factory workers displaced by robots over the past two decades were absorbed into three employment categories -- transport, construction and maintenance, and office and administration work.
- Now these categories are the most vulnerable to automation over the next decade.
- Loss of jobs because of automation is also confirmed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its report 'Future of Jobs'.
