Workplace robots have had little impact on jobs in Germany

Robots might not be stealing our jobs after all – at least, not if you're German. An analysis of more than 20 years of labour automation in Germany found no evidence that robots caused job losses in the country as a whole. Automation has changed the kinds of work people do, but hasn't taken jobs away permanently, says Jens Südekum at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Although there are plenty of reports that predict future job losses caused by automation, Südekum's study is only the second to look at how many jobs robots have already taken from us. The first – a US study published earlier this year – painted a much gloomier picture.