From powerful politicians to “average” Americans, countless people fret and argue over how likely it is that automated technologies will quickly devour human jobs, putting the approximately 1 million factory laborers in the United States out of work. This is a pressing concern already in 2019, especially for Americans in such occupations, but what if the real worry was not that automation would take away factory jobs, but that it would simply make them more stressful and labor intensive?
This is what a report by researchers at the University of Illinois warns about happening in the next decade. The research itself focuses on technologies that modify the responsibilities of workers organizing storing, and packaging products in warehouses and factories. While automation reduces the “monotonous and physically strenuous activities” of factory labor, it may also negatively impact “workers’ health, safety, and morale,” as they are put under more stress to work more efficiently and with fewer errors. Beth Gutelius, associate director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, asserts that “the next decade is a story not about job loss, but more so about changes in job quality,” and that “technology has led to workers being pushed harder and also their privacy getting violated.”
If true, this could mean there is an entirely new set of concerns for the many factory and warehouse workers of America and worldwide. Instead of automation taking away jobs, it may be having the other adverse effects of contributing “to an overall greater workload and more intense supervision” for the factory and warehouse laborers already working strenuous jobs. We will certainly see some of the extremes of where automation technology takes us in the factory and shipping industries in our lifetime.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/10/22/20925894/robots-warehouse-jobs-automation-replace-workers-amazon-report-university-illinois