More Robots Lead to Hiring More People, Study Shows

Many people fear the rise in automation may result in lower employment but that may not always be the case. According to new research, firms who were quick to add robots to their manufacturing also saw a rise in employees. "When you look at use of robots at the firm level, it is really interesting because there is an additional dimension," said study co-author and MIT economist Daron Acemoglu. "We know firms are adopting robots in order to reduce their costs, so it is quite plausible that firms adopting robots early are going to expand at the expense of their competitors whose costs are not going down. And that's exactly what we find." The study revealed that although a 20 percentage point increase in robot use from 2010 to 2015 led to a 3.2% decrease in employment, for firms adopting robots, employee hours actually increased by 10.9% and wages rose as well.