WCA September 2020

From the Americas

number of people claimed to be “employed on temporary layoff” when they should have classed themselves as “unemployed on temporary layoff.” Without the misclassification, the April rate would have been closer to 19 per cent. In April, at least 18.1 million of the 23.1 million people unemployed said they were on temporary layoff, expecting to be back at work within six months. About 2.6 million believed the job loss was permanent. Economists said that workers’ perceptions that their layoffs were temporary is one reason the US stock market rebounded sharply from the pandemic lows. “What makes this downturn different from all others is that people have held the belief that, once everything reopens, all the jobs are going to come back,” said Steven Blitz, chief US economist at TS Lombard in New York. “If we see temporary layoffs go down as more see those job losses [as] permanent, that means their confidence in the economy, six months from now, is going to be a lot less and that’s going to reduce spending plans.” A white paper from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) – World Robotics R and D Programs – summarises the important contribution that robots can make to industry and society, and how vital research funding programmes will enable and support these developments across the world. “Each country has its own characteristics of robot programmes, based on its specific background and history,” said Professor Dr Jong-Oh Park, vice-chair IFR research committee and member of the executive board. “Therefore, we see that robotics programmes set up by the most advanced robotics countries have a very different strategic focus.” The strategic “Made in China 2025” plan acts as a blueprint to upgrade the manufacturing capabilities of Chinese industries; this includes advanced robotics among the top ten core industries. The Robot Industry Development Plan set out the goals for China in 2020. These included the development of at least three globally competitive robot manufacturers; creating eight to ten industrial clusters; achieving 45 per cent of domestic market share for China’s high-end robots; and increasing China’s robot density to 100 robots per 10,000 workers. During 2019 the Chinese government invested $577 million in the development of intelligent robots. The New Robot Strategy in Japan is a key policy of the Abenomics Growth Strategy. The robot-related budget for 2019 was increased to $351 million, with an action plan that includes manufacturing as well as service sectors such as Technology White paper examines global robot developments

Unfilled orders at factories dropped 1.6 per cent in April, after falling 2.1 per cent in March, and factory inventories fell 0.4 per cent in April. Shipments of manufactured goods fell by 13.5 per cent. Orders for transportation equipment, having fallen by 43.2 per cent in March, fell again by 48.3 per cent in April. There were no orders for civilian aircraft, and orders for motor vehicles and motor parts fell by 29.3 per cent. Machinery orders fell 7.2 per cent, while orders for electrical equipment, appliances and components fell by 9 per cent. The US government reported that orders for non-defence capital goods (excluding aircraft) – seen as a measure of business spending plans and, hence, business confidence – declined 6.1 per cent in April, a greater drop than previously reported. With US business investment contracting for four consecutive quarters, not all of which coincided with the pandemic shutdown, it was no surprise to read the US unemployment rate had reached almost 20 per cent in May: a new and unenviable post-World War Two record. The Labor Department’s monthly employment report appeared to support economists’ predictions that it will take several years to recover from the economic “meltdown”. Still, it was anticipated that May would mark the nadir for the labour market. While layoffs continued to be high, they eased considerably in the second half of May when businesses began to reopen. Consumer confidence, manufacturing and services industries were also stabilising, though at low levels; hopeful signs that the worst was over. “The good news is that we probably have hit the bottom,” said Sung Won Sohn, a finance and economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “But the recovery will be painfully slow. It will take years, probably a decade, to get back to where we were at the end of last year.” In a Reuters poll of expectations for the economy, a survey of households was expected to show unemployment jumping to 19.8 per cent in May, from 14.7 per cent in April, the highest since 1948 when government records began. Non-farm payrolls were expected to have dropped by eight million jobs after a record plunge of over 20 million in April. That would bring total job losses to 29.4 million since the shutdown began in March: more than three times the number of jobs lost during the 2007-09 recession that took six years to recoup. Economists are divided on whether the government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is really helping. The PPP, part of a historic fiscal package worth nearly $3 trillion, offers business loans that can be waived, in part, if used to pay employees. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which compiles the employment report, announced that a misclassification by respondents had shown the unemployment rate to be lower in April than it really was: a Jobs market took a further hit, nearing 20 per cent unemployment

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2020