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Robotics United States

America Is Hiring a Record Number of Robots (cnn.com) 91

Posted by BeauHD from the elbow-grease dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Companies in North America added a record number of robots in the first nine months of this year as they rushed to speed up assembly lines and struggled to add human workers. Factories and other industrial users ordered 29,000 robots, 37% more than during the same period last year, valued at $1.48 billion, according to data compiled by the industry group the Association for Advancing Automation. That surpassed the previous peak set in the same time period in 2017, before the global pandemic upended economies.

The rush to add robots is part of a larger upswing in investment as companies seek to keep up with strong demand, which in some cases has contributed to shortages of key goods. At the same time, many firms have struggled to lure back workers displaced by the pandemic and view robots as an alternative to adding human muscle on their assembly lines. Robots also continue to push into more corners of the economy. Auto companies have long bought most industrial robots. But in 2020, combined sales to other types of businesses surpassed the auto sector for the first time -- and that trend continued this year. In the first nine months of the year, auto-related orders for robots grew 20% to 12,544 units, according to A3, while orders by non-automotive companies expanded 53% to 16,355.
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America Is Hiring a Record Number of Robots More

America Is Hiring a Record Number of Robots

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  • Hiring? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @04:31PM (#61982577)

    I think "hiring" is not the correct word to use here.

    • It's a prompting for people to equate the number to jobs lost and click on the story

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by quall ( 1441799 )

        Lost? More like the opposite. I'd equate it to the number of jobs available that people are choosing not to accept. Companies aren't hiring people because people aren't applying, so they're "hiring" robots instead.

        It's just good business. They're finding a way to stay open and get the work done when there is literally nobody stepping forward to do that work. It's hard to argue that robots are taking jobs away when people aren't applying for them to begin with.

    • I think "hiring" is not the correct word to use here.

      "Robot" is not the correct word either. TFA says that 29,000 "robots" were installed, or about one for every 10,000 Americans. TFA does not define what counts as a "robot", but the adoption of automated machinery is way higher than that.

    • For capitalists, underpaid workers and machines are the same thing: they're an expense to get the most out of. The use of the word is not a slip.

      • The number is useful for people in that industry, but of course it doesn't directly equate to a number of humans anyways. How many bulldozers where hired last year? How many jobs did they take?
        • Does the bulldozer goes home to his cowdozer after a hard day of work?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dvice ( 6309704 )

          Bulldozers are hard to find, but for agriculture robots, the global units shipped in 2021 is about 400 000. There are several companies making the bulldozer robots, so estimating the amount from their revenue is also difficult.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        Ah yes, because if you're a capitalist you must hate people too, right? Sorry, no.

    • Why is the word not correct. One can hire all sorts of things. I don't see why robots would be exempt.

      • Because you would rent, lease, or purchase a robot. You don't normally say "I need to go to the store and hire a shovel."

        • Because you would rent, lease, or purchase a robot. You don't normally say "I need to go to the store and hire a shovel."

          We may be seeing some difference between US and UK English. I don't think you could hire a shovel because it's cheap enough that you might as well buy it outright. But if you need a mini JCB or portable generator for a few days, you absolutely can hire one for the duration. In fact, I think the term you're looking for it "Plant Hire".

          If this is not a valid expression in US English that's something I'll have to bear in mind for the future.

          • Possibly. One can rent machinery; rent a car, rent a lawnmower, rent a bulldozer, etc.

          • As a US english speaker, I've never heard the term Plant Hire. We really only use the word hire when talking about human labor. Someone may use it for animals that work as well but that's probably stretching it.

            For "things" we just say rent, as darin points out.

            • As a US english speaker, I've never heard the term Plant Hire. We really only use the word hire when talking about human labor. Someone may use it for animals that work as well but that's probably stretching it.

              For "things" we just say rent, as darin points out.

              Yeah, looks like it's one of those annoying differences in terminology. 'Rental' is sometimes used, but generally if you need some expensive equipment for a specific job here, it's called 'hiring' it.

              "Plant hire" is specifically the rental of construction machinery - referred to for some reason as "plant machinery", which is why you occasionally get road signs saying "Heavy plant crossing". (What it's really trying to say is more like "Danger, bulldozers")

              • That all makes perfect sense explained as such. Maybe on construction sites they may very well use the term plant machinery but generally the most we get for sign work is "watch for trucks exiting and entering" while in a construction area along the freeway.

                I know in warehouses the handbook will call our motorized pallet jacks and forklifts as PITs, power industrial truck(s). We usually call the forklife big joe since that's it's brand.

          • If this is not a valid expression in US English that's something I'll have to bear in mind for the future.

            In North American English, we say "rent" or "lease".

            We only say "hire" to mean paying a worker to do a job, either temporarily or permanently.

            Outside North America, "hire" can be used as a synonym for non-residential rent. So in the UK, you can hire equipment or a car, but you would not hire an apartment.

        • Yes I would happily go to a tool hire shop to hire a tool. I'm unlikely to hire a shovel however because wtf.

          Why do you think I wouldn't?

          • In American English hire has the connotation of a human more often than not. We normally say tool for rent, not tool to let or tool for hire. If we do say for hire it's because a human comes with the tool, like truck or car for hire.

    • I think "hiring" is not the correct word to use here.

      It is if you're BeauHD. They're one of it's own!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by khchung ( 462899 )

      I think "hiring" is not the correct word to use here.

      Of course. The purpose of this article is to enrage people, the incorrect usage of the word is intentional to invoke the make people think the machines are stealing their jobs. Journalist and propaganda is now so similar that you need a microscope and a lot of imagination to tell there is any difference.

      What the past 200 years have taught us was that as machines replace people, people get different jobs that pays more, and eventually create more jobs for people all round. Anyone who disagrees can go to a

  • "There's some jobs even a robot won't do."

    • There will be less jobs that a robot can't do. Any physical job can be done by a robot, and with AI advancing very rapidly, even a lot of non-physical jobs can be done by a robot.

  • Good (Score:2, Interesting)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 )

    Tax the robots paycheck or productivity and use that to fund universal basic income. In effect taxpayers would own the robot and get paid for its production activity. Humans should not be doing labor and repetitive work anyway. Sounds like a waste of ones time being alive to sit in a factory pressing a button. Is it really needed to build character? To what end? Why not do exercise at home instead? Or learn something? Or design something? Or do gardening.

    • It is also a waste of one's time to sit in front of a computer all day. I have good experience with this.

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Ya, give people free money, what could go wrong?

      • According to all the studies so far, they pursue personal projects that would otherwise have been a dream out of their reach.

        npr.org [npr.org]

        • giving $500 a month handouts isn't a UBI, please stop the bullshit. And get a job.

        • Unless you are going to pay off my house and car, then provide enough to cover all the food, utilities and insurance, plus more money to fund hobbies, I don't think it will work.

          That will never happen. So you clearly will need a job or some way to otherwise get control of more resources then the government is ever going to give you.

          If you take my job but give me my salary in UBI, assuming it's taxed, I'm literally no better off. Likely worse off, since I won't have the structure that having a job forces ont

          • Unless you are going to pay off my house and car

            I'll note though that somebody who isn't dependent on a job for income doesn't need to live in an expensive area, so they can always move to a place with cheap housing. And without commuting they may not even need a car.

        • According to all the studies so far

          All of the studies so far were:

          1. Not UBI

          2. Conducted by advocates of UBI, not neutral researchers

          • Do you have any evidence that all the studies were done by UBI advocates and not neutral researchers? What evidence is there of either the researchers not being neutral or the study itself. Besides, the proper standard is to ask was the research itself neutral. You can be biased and still carry out neutral research. For example, when Michelson-Morley carried out their famous luminiferous aether experiments, they thought it was real and were trying to measure it. Turned out they proved the aether did not eve

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mark-t ( 151149 )
      Robots don't get paychecks. The only ongoing expense to having a robot is the cost of resources that they use (and utility bills cannot be taxed like employee income can be), and the cost of maintenance (which is someone else's paycheck, and income tax is being paid on that already).

      • It's worse then that. I would say the robot is better from a tax standpoint because you can setup a depreciation cycle on the robot. You get to write off your equipment depreciation value.

        A human worker not only needs wages but also you have to pay the employer side of the payroll tax. Robots don't have no stinken payroll tax.

    • Cuz as near as I can tell the majority of people even here on slash Dot where we should be full of science fiction readers are not okay with that. I remember years ago Fox News or somebody had found a surfer bro who was living off handouts and government assistance and spending all day goofing off and surfing. The government doesn't pay enough for you to survive even if you have no income in a blue state, so if he was really doing it he was probably supplementing his income somehow, but the White knuckle ra

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mark-t ( 151149 )

        Where in the world you come to the conclusion that automation being a good thing somehow equates to it being desirable that people being paid to not work? Or do you genuinely think that most people are incapable of professional and personal growth even when their circumstances are forcing them to?

        • You just said "learn to code" but in a whole lot of extra words. And yes after your twenties it's well documented that people's ability to learn and adapt is significantly decreased. Pretending that that's not the case is not going to end well

      • What do you do when the world doesn't need ditch diggers?

        Ditch diggers are replaced with backhoes because the backhoe is cheaper.

        So someone is saving money. What are they spending that money on? Whatever it is, providing that new thing is what the former ditch diggers will do.

        When agriculture was automated, food became cheaper. As people spent less on food, they spent more on manufactured goods, so the former farmers became factory workers. As manufactured goods became cheaper, people began to spend more money on services. So factory workers switched to prov

        • It becomes savings. When you have more money than you can save it becomes power. By and large people automating away jobs are taking that money and using it to buy up other businesses and corner of their markets they're by increasing their wealth and their by increasing their power. What they are not doing is driving the economy forward because 1% of the population cannot purchase enough stuff to keep an economy functional. So our economy is like a freight train very slowly grinding to a halt. It just doesn

          • taking that money and using it to buy up other businesses

            That doesn't "use up" any money. It just transfers the money from one person to the next.

            So the person who sells his business, what does he spend it on?

            Ultimately, money that is saved is spent on something else. Providing that "something else" is where the new jobs are.

            When food becomes cheaper, and people shift spending to factory goods, they are getting food+things for what they used to spend on just food. When manufacturing is automated and spending shifts to services, people get food+things+services

            • I am sure he is a nice person, but rsilvergun is zero on economics, he thinks it is zero sum. Some examples:
              1. Does not know that money saved in a bank is used to give out 10x that amount in loans, which spur economic growth by enabling homes and factories to be built.
              2. Thinks that unrealized capital gains is actual cash somebody has, instead of merely an indicator of how much the thing they own or created is envied at a particular point in time.

  • The robot union has formed

  • Until robots do everything, including building and repairing themselves, people do not have much to worry about.

    • The people that should be worrying are the ones that would have been doing the boring, repetitive, low-paying jobs that robots generally do (to name a few)...

      - pick up part from a conveyor belt and place it on a moving hook system that takes the parts to a cleaning or painting process

      - add parts to electronic assemblies (pick-n-place machines)

      - stack finished goods on pallets and wrap them with plastic cling wrap

      - speed-sorting of mail at the US Post Office

      So I U wants to w0rk for some d@m fin3 endZ U gonna

    • Cost as much or more than having workers nobody would be automating jobs away. The entire reason you're reading this article is that the care for the robot is significantly less than it was to hire the employees it replaced.
    • Even then people don't have much to worry about. It simply shifts what is seen as valuable. If something doesn't take any human time or effort to get to consumer it will be super cheap. The goods and services you will be spending money on are the ones that fundamentally cannot be made by a robot. That's mostly various forms of luxury, handmade by a robot is an oxymoron that will never fly.
  • Oh that 70's show! Robots replacing workers on paint and welding lines in auto factories!!!
    • Search Google for the Business Insider article that describes how 70% of middle class jobs were eliminated by automation since the 1980s. Automation has been devouring jobs and we didn't notice because the com and housing bubbles created a massive amount of pointless make work jobs that paid very well. That's all done and there doesn't appear to be another bubble on the horizon. So a reckoning is coming. You might be old enough that you don't have to deal with it. Your kids aren't if you have any.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        Oh please. The 70% thing is pure clickbait. From the article... https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]

        Sectors hit hardest by automation since the 1980s include vehicle manufacturing, printing and publishing, and the manufacturing of rubber and plastic products, according to the team's model.

        So, much of the job loss in vehicle manufacturing was due to overpaid UAW employees (I know this topic well having grown up with it), and many of their jobs being exported to Mexico, Canada, etc. They made shit vehicles, and were one of the most corrupt unions ever. As for printing and publishing, you'd have to include the internet in the definition of automation.

        Note that they also blame several other issu

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        The mass homelessness is probably largely caused by a combo of automation and offshoring.

  • Why is it unsurprising to me... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Friday November 12, 2021 @05:20PM (#61982733) Journal
    ... that the same year a record number of Americans quit their jobs because they wanted better working conditions (work from home flexibility, better benefits, etc) is also the same year that a record number of robot workers replaced them?
    • There has been some shuffling where a handful of restaurants and childcare workers went to call centers, public schools and retail. But a very large number, by accounts at least 1.6 million, were women who dropped out of the job market because the cost of child care is averaging $1,200 a month and when you throw in three or $400 a month for a beater car and the occasional additional expense it just comes up when you work for a living they were spending more going to work and being a stay-at-home mom. They w

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        I punched out just a year before Covid hit at 60. I've kept in touch with many former coworkers and heard many of them express concerns about retiring...until they did it. And then, the common refrain is...I don't know why id didn't do this sooner. Nobody regrets retiring. Unfortunately, one of those who was still working passed of a heart attack yesterday. RIP Ray.

  • "We demand a $15/hour wage for every shitty job that requires no skill, is meant to be a part time job for new workers, and where the employees are instantly replaceable from off the street."
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    "America is hiring more robots than ever!"

    I'm sure this will strike some as surprising.

    • Oh no, your Big Mac would cost an extra 25 cents and you’d have better service too. The horror

      https://www.marketwatch.com/st... [marketwatch.com]

      • Shame $15 hour isn't a liveable wage anyway. Go ahead, work full time at $15, see how well you are doing in most major cities in USA.

        The only thing $15 min wage does is help get people off of government subsidies but it doesn't actually improve their lot in life. Full time minimum wage is just enough if you are single to disqualify you from pretty much all the programs.

        So instead of needing the government to be under employed and in poverty, you are now working your ass off and still living in poverty.

        Here'

        • $15 per hour is more than twice the poverty line for a single person and close to the median hourly wage in America.

          • Fair enough. I'm being to loose with the word poverty here. But https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/po... [hhs.gov] says poverty for a single person is 12,880.

            12,880/52 is ~248. 248/15 is 16.5. If you are only working 16.5 hours you need to be TRYING so much harder.

            You also are pretty much not living alone because you can hardly rent a room for 1k in San Diego (where I live) and minimum wage here is $14.50 I think.

            Thank you for pointing out my abuse of the definition of poverty.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jvkjvk ( 102057 )

            >$15 per hour is more than twice the poverty line for a single person and close to the median hourly wage in America.

            So what? It still isn't enough in most urban markets.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dcw3 ( 649211 )

            Median hourly wage was $22 two years ago.

            https://nationalequityatlas.or... [nationalequityatlas.org]

      • Did you bother looking at that 'study'?
        - it disregards the fact that other wages would have to rise to compensate; how well do you think it's going to go over that Chuck has worked here for 12 years and is making $15/hour, now suddenly every new hire makes that same wage?
        - why would the food costs and other inputs remain the same, if the baseline pay across all industries is climbing 100%?
        - it seems to presume that restaurants pay nothing in current payroll and benefits - there are values for $15/hour and $

  • They're all going to want Robanukah off. Not to mention the time they need to Kill All Humans.

  • Real story (Score:5, Informative)

    by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @07:56PM (#61983065) Homepage
    I'm in industrial automation. The real story is a bit different. Yes, orders were up. We put in some robot orders recently and were shocked at lead times in the 6 to 12 month range. We asked the vendor what was going on... He said near the start of the pandemic they had some mild supply chain issues, but it was nothing huge. However their customers flipped out and started ordering robots like crazy, far ahead of time to make sure they'd have inventory for future projects. So sure, orders are up, but it's basically just the toilet paper shortage all over again. The pace of new automation projects is the same as it ever was.

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