#factory labor

If you make ends meet I am proud of you.

The Ultimate Guide to Understanding and Navigating Industrial Staffing

The industries that are rapidly increasing productivity and profits are doing so by eliminating jobs and the need for labor. The Web is chewing up industry after industry, wiping out entire sectors that once supported hundreds of thousands of jobs while creating a few thousand new jobs that require high-level skills and mobility. Robotics are replacing factory labor throughout the world—yes, even in “low-wage” China. When I first toured a variety of factories in China in 2000, many were little more than simple warehouses filled with long tables where workers assembled and packaged cheap light fixtures, etc. by hand. Others had robotic machines stamping out circuit boards that were then hand-assembled into monitors, etc. The defect rate was high in these settings. Machines are increasingly replacing hand labor in China. Much is made of “labor shortages” in certain southern cities, but what that actually means is a shortage of young workers (overwhelmingly preferred over older workers by manufacturers) willing to work for low wages. Machines don’t go on strike, their wages don’t rise by government mandate, they don’t call in sick, and they don’t need supervision. In effect, workers are replaced by capital invested in robotics and software.