What is the impact of industrial robots on the labor market? Recently, a study released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University showed that from 1990 to 2007, every 1,000 American workers increased by 1 robot, the national employment ratio fell by 0.2%, and workers ’wages fell by 0.42%.

This means that for every additional robot in US manufacturing, an average of 3.3 workers will be replaced.

The above study is titled “Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets” by MIT Economics Professor Daron Acemoglu and Assistant Professor Pascual Restrepo of Boston University completed the cooperation. The research paper was published in the Journal of Political Economy.

Two researchers used 19 industry data collected by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), combined with the population provided by the US Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics , Employment, business and wage data for model analysis.


Geographical distribution of US industrial robots from 1993 to 2007

they found The robots used by the four major manufacturing industries account for 70% of the total number in the United States, namely automobile manufacturing (38%), electronics (15%), plastics and chemical industries (10%), and metal manufacturing (7%).

The distribution density of robots varies greatly geographically. Michigan is the most concentrated place for robots in the workplace. Among them, Detroit, the “city of cars”, Lansing, the state capital, and Saginaw, the industrial city in the central and eastern states, are the most affected by employment.

Research author Daron Acemoglu found that the most obvious problem with robots isDetroit. “No matter what happens in the automotive industry, the impact on the Detroit area (compared to other areas of the United States) is much greater.”


Industrial robots in the US and Europe. The number of industrial robots per thousand workers in the US and Europe.

Through horizontal comparison, the researchers also found that the deployment of robots in the United States lags behind that in Europe. From 1993 to 2007, the proportion of new robots introduced in the United States was close to an increase of 1 robot per 1,000 workers; but in Europe, the number of robots increased by 1.6 per 1,000 workers during the same period.

“Although the United States is a very technologically advanced economy, it lags behind many other advanced economies in terms of industrial robot production, use and innovation”, Acemoglu Commented.

Research indicates that robots have a direct impact on income inequality. In the manufacturing industry, some workers who have been replaced by robots do not have many other good employment options. The results of the study show that there is a direct link between the use of robots and industry automation and the decline in the income of blue-collar workers.

This study provides evidence for the negative effects of robots on employment, but the author Daron Acemoglu believes that their findings do not give “robots to take away all human jobs “Support.