Robots Are Starting To Take Over People’s Jobs

Robots are starting to take over the world, but it's far from old school sci-fi movie invasion where the droids destroy things. It's actually far worse when you think of it. Robots are gradually taking up manufacturing jobs, a new report is saying

Apparently, the public's assumption that these jobs have gone to China and Mexico and that they can be brought back is false. In fact, it's not only manufacturing jobs but most labor-intensive jobs are being replaced by bots as well.

According to Vox, data shows:

...the decline of manufacturing employment actually doesn't reflect a broader decline in the state of American manufacturing.

...the output — as measured in inflation-adjusted dollars — of the U.S. manufacturing sector is higher than it's ever been, even as manufacturing employment has barely recovered from its recession-era lows.

In the book Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, author Martin Ford explains that no job is actually safe from the machines.

Momentum Machines can now mechanise hamburger flipping and creation at a rate of 360 an hour, toasted buns and condiments included.

"Our job isn't to make employees more efficient, it's meant to completely obviate them," says the company's founder.

There's in demand hard-working employees Dash and OSHbot. While Dash serves guests at a hotel in Silicon Valley hotel, OSHbot is a retail assistant in San Jose, California.

OSHbot

Dash

Image Credit: Mark Harris via The Guardian

Target and Amazon are also getting into the game of automated workers.

In addition to rising wages, the reason for this rising shift in technological manpower is that more robot workers mean less employees. This means less people to pay.

According to Ford, in 2012, Google earned $14 billion with a little over 38,000 employees. By retrospect, General Motors only made $11 billion with 840,000 workers.

It's not only manufacturing services. There is also a growing need for robot employees in health care.

Aging expert Joseph Coughlin explained in the Big Think:

Researchers at the Fraunhoffer Institute in Germany developed Care-o-Bot, a servicebot that tells stories, plays music and even calls for help in an emergency. Japan's research community has long been on the frontier of robotics and aging.

One example is Robear a bear-like robot that is gentle enough to lift and move a frail older adult. Now from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University is Nadine. Standing 5 feet 7 inches or 1.7 meters tall, Nadine is a humanoid robot that seems deep in the uncanny valley of being very human-like but…not. Nadine can join you in conversation, recall your last exchange and show a wide range of facial expressions and body language.

It appears that robot job invasion is inevitable and that no matter what steps are taken to reinforce the manufacturing sector, it would still do little to improve employment.

What then is the solution?

I've seen none so far, but hopefully, someone will come up with something. Humans have always adapted to changing economies and climates in the world. We'll figure our way out.

We can't all become robotic engineers.