The Biggest Threat To The Low And Middle Skilled Worker: Robots | Zero Hedge

The Biggest Threat To The Low And Middle Skilled Worker: Robots | Zero Hedge

US non-supervisory workers have seen better days. In addition to facing declining wage growth while higher ups’ pay steadily increases, there are grossly underfunded pension plans with an equally underfunded pension guarantee system to deal with, on top of a central bank that seems intent on enriching the few at the expense of the many by deliberately inflating the value of the assets most likely to be held by the rich while driving returns on everything else to near zero. But as we’ve noted in the past, there may be an even bigger threat to the manufacturing workers of the world: robots. 

Here’s more from VOX:

We find that industrial robots increase labour productivity, total factor productivity, and wages. At the same time, while industrial robots had no significant effect on total hours worked, there is some evidence that they reduced the employment of low skilled workers, and to a lesser extent also middle skilled workers…

Rapid technological change reduced the prices of industrial robots (adjusted for changes in quality) by around 80% during our sample period. Unsurprisingly, robots use grew dramatically. From 1993-2007, the ratio of the number of robots to hours worked increased on average by about 150%. The rise in robot use was particularly pronounced in Germany, Denmark, and Italy. The industries that increased robot use most rapidly were the producers of transportation equipment, chemical industries, and metal industries…

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