Robots Are Catching Up to Humans in the Jobs Race

A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that increased adoption of robotics and automation equipment has been a substantial driver of the declining labor share of income for U.S. workers, even during a period of extremely low unemployment. The Robotic Industries Association's data shows that the U.S. industrial robotics market is by far the biggest in North America. Mexico is now the second-biggest market, and has been bigger than Canada for several years. But Mexico's manufacturing wages are not similar to Canada's. Last year, Canada's average manufacturing wage (in U.S. dollars) was $19.31 per hour.