TPT November 2019

G LOBA L MARKE T P L AC E

Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation , commented: ”Robot use continues to grow, which is helping make US companies more competitive and leading to new job growth. We are currently experiencing the greatest period of robot expansion in history – over 180,000 robots have been shipped to American companies since 2010, and more than 1.2 million new manufacturing jobs have been created during this time.” Last year, Michael Chui – a partner in McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) – looked for possible catalysts for increasing the demand for human labour. Automation in the workplace might be offsetting demand, but it is also creating a new demand of its own [MGI podcast: How will automation affect jobs, skills, and wages?] Mr Chui’s list included global rising incomes and prosperity, bringing a further one billion people into the consuming classes during the next twenty years; an ageing population, driving the need for additional labour in healthcare; and the fact that development and deployment of new technologies, whether digitisation, automation, robotics or AI, will actually need people. “We know we can’t predict the future completely, [and] we also know we can’t imagine every job that could possibly be developed. “For example, right now we have a bunch of people whose job it is to be an app developer for mobile smartphones. This

that brings in seasonal, low-skilled labour. Some farms are making substantial investments in automation technology to fill the labour shortfalls. Another knock-on effect of the cannabis boom is a shortage of craftsmen [ Reuters: Canadian greenhouse labor shortages worsened by growing cannabis producers ]. “We’re all… fighting for the same trades people, the same repair people,” said Linda Delli Santi, head of the Greenhouse Growers’ Association in British Columbia. “If you’re building a new greenhouse, getting all the trades on site [is] often difficult because those people are busy with cannabis operations, too.” Robotic growth shows scant losses for US jobs Does investment in automation and robotics address the labour shortage? The Robotic Industries Association (RIA) , part of the Association for Advancing Automation , reported that the North American robotics market saw a 7.2 per cent increase during the first half of 2019. Between January and June orders were placed for 16,488 robots, valued at $869mn, with 83 per cent of robots bound for automotive OEMs. The semiconductor and electronics, life sciences, and food and consumer goods sectors saw more modest increases of between three and 12 per cent. In the second quarter alone, North American companies ordered 8,572 robots, valued at $446mn – 19.2 per cent growth in numbers compared to the same period in 2018.

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NOVEMBER 2019