Can robots create jobs for humans?

As President Donald Trump seeks to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing, many industry leaders are looking to robots as the most efficient way for American factories to compete with cheap labor overseas. "We think robotics has had a positive impact on U.S. manufacturing by creating better, safer and higher paying jobs for American workers," said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), a trade group. "Most importantly (robotics is) making American companies more competitive so that they can expand their business and ultimately, in many cases, add more workers than they did before they started automating." According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by A3, U.S. companies added a record 136,748 robots to factory floors over the past seven years, while creating 894,000 new manufacturing jobs. Robots assemble a Toyota Motor Corp. Yaris at the company's plant in Onnaing, near Valenciennes, France, May 17, 2017.