January 24, 2019

• When the next recession comes, the robots will be ready

  For humans, it’s a downturn. For machines, it’s an opportunity.

  A security robot patrols Washington Harbour in 2017. Automation, long a threat to production workers, will soon also transform the work of lower-paid service workers such as security guards. (Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

  By Andrew Van Dam

  January 24 at 11:37 AM

  Robots’ infiltration of the workforce doesn’t happen gradually, at the pace of technology. It happens in surges, when companies are given strong incentives to tackle the difficult task of automation.

  Typically, those incentives occur during recessions. Employers slash payrolls going into a downturn and, out of necessity, turn to software or machinery to take over the tasks once performed by their laid-off workers as business begins to recover.

  As uncertainty soars, a shutdown drags on, and consumer confidence sputters, economists increasingly predict a recession this year or next. Whenever this long economic expansion ends, the robots will be ready. The human labor market is tight, with the unemployment rate at 3.9 percent, but there’s plenty of slack in the robot labor force.

  Bots’ infiltration of the workforce doesn’t happen gradually, at the pace of technology. It happens in surges, when companies are given strong incentives to tackle the difficult task of automation.Typically, those incentives occur during recessions. Employers slash payrolls going into a downturn and, out of necessity, turn to software or machinery to take over the tasks once performed by their laid-off workers as business begins to recover.As uncertainty soars, a shutdown drags on, and consumer confidence sputters, economists increasingly predict a recession this year or next.

  Whenever this long economic expansion ends, the robots will be ready. The human labor market is tight, with the unemployment rate at 3.9 percent, but there’s plenty of slack in the robot labor force.

  Click here for the rest of the Washington Post article:

   

   

  • 6:26 pm
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