Robots are the Best Way to Keep Jobs in America

Anti-robot sen­ti­ments are not unheard of; a lot of robot apoc­a­lypse fear and fin­ger point­ing (at robots) has ensued. How­ev­er, this does not need to be the case any­more. With the cur­rent admin­is­tra­tion fight­ing to bring jobs back to Amer­i­ca, there is a much more pos­i­tive way to look at the robot issue. Per­haps it’s time to start under­stand­ing the con­tri­bu­tion that robots have in keep­ing our econ­o­my alive. A clos­er look at the issue does­n’t have to result in a doom and gloom response. Ulti­mate­ly, robots offer oppor­tu­ni­ties to keep and cre­ate new and bet­ter jobs for Americans.

Robots Strength­en Amer­i­can Businesses

Recent stud­ies are prov­ing that robots will be to thank for hav­ing any man­u­fac­tur­ing strength at all. In fact, robot­ic automa­tion allows com­pa­nies to expand their capa­bil­i­ties, reduce costs, and increase production.

As robot­ic tech­nol­o­gy con­tin­ues to advance (vision capa­bil­i­ties, greater speed, etc.), this can only ben­e­fit more and more Amer­i­can man­u­fac­tur­ers. Equipped with bet­ter tech­nol­o­gy, busi­ness­es can enter new mar­kets and com­pete on a glob­al scale.

Robots Com­bat Offshoring

Off­shoring is an ever-present threat to Amer­i­can jobs, far more grave than robots. Accord­ing to a sur­vey con­duct­ed by Prince­ton Econ­o­mist Alan S. Blind­er, it’s a trend that has the poten­tial to con­tin­ue — pos­si­bly tak­ing as many as 25% of the nation’s jobs.

Robot­ic automa­tion is one of the ways busi­ness­es can remain com­pet­i­tive in the glob­al econ­o­my with­out off­shoring. Robots pro­vide an incred­i­ble ROI and enable com­pa­nies to pro­duce top qual­i­ty prod­ucts for less — the goal of off­shoring. Fur­ther­more, they improve pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, through­put, and prod­uct qual­i­ty — so busi­ness­es can stay strong and stay on Amer­i­can soil.

Robots Cre­ate New, Skilled Jobs

As with the first indus­tri­al rev­o­lu­tion, new tech­nol­o­gy is chang­ing jobs and requir­ing new skill sets. In many cas­es, labor­ers can tran­si­tion into new posi­tions tak­ing care of and man­ag­ing robot­ic sys­tems; man­u­al welders and engi­neers make for the best robot oper­a­tors. Robot­ic sys­tems are machines; they must have peo­ple work­ing on them who have an inti­mate knowl­edge of the process/​application.

With the intro­duc­tion of robots, many employ­ees have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to move on to high­er paid, more chal­leng­ing roles. Amar Toor of Switched puts it this way: “…robots, like any oth­er new tech­nol­o­gy, will put an even high­er pre­mi­um on edu­ca­tion and skilled labor. Which, in the grand scheme of things, is actu­al­ly a good thing for humanity.”

Not Just Bet­ter Jobs, But Bet­ter Conditions

A lot of the indus­tri­al labor jobs involved in man­u­fac­tur­ing are quite dan­ger­ous, dirty, and dull. By tak­ing over these tasks robots are actu­al­ly sav­ing lives and improv­ing work­er health and morale. With the intro­duc­tion of robots, work­ers can tran­si­tion to less haz­ardous jobs. No longer must work­ers endure the sear­ing heat of foundry fur­naces, risk ampu­ta­tion as a result of a press tend­ing acci­dent, or slump into depres­sion from bor­ing, repet­i­tive work.

The Robot Indus­try Gen­er­ates Jobs

A recent arti­cle from RIA pres­i­dent Jeff Burn­stein under­lined the fact that the robot­ics indus­try itself is also cre­at­ing jobs for Amer­i­cans. The U.S. divi­sions of large robot­ics man­u­fac­tur­ers such as as ABB, Motoman, Fanuc, Uni­ver­sal Robots, and KUKA pro­vide mul­ti­ple employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. In addi­tion, small busi­ness robot inte­gra­tors and com­pa­nies deal­ing in refur­bished robots pro­vide still more job open­ings for engi­neers, labor­ers, fab­ri­ca­tors, and salespeople.

Inter­est­ed in learn­ing more? Con­tact the experts at Robots​.com online or at 877−762−6881.