The Worldwide Federation of Robotics publishes an annual report on using robots in manufacturing and companies. The principle report is dear and restricted, however some highlights are free. The highest panel reveals robots per 10,000 staff in manufacturing industries for 2023. The panel beneath reveals an identical determine with knowledge for 2017. Just a few themes emerge:
1) Throughout the foremost manufacturing international locations, the variety of robots per 10,000 manufacturing staff roughly doubles, from 85 to 162.
2) The robots in China enhance particularly quickly, from near the national-level common in 2017 to nearly triple the nationwide common by 2023.
3) Robots within the US have been greater than double the national-level common in 2017, and fewer than double in 2023.
These determine are only a depend, not an evaluation of results on jobs or wages. Nationwide economies concentrate on completely different varieties of producing, and likewise are going through completely different demographic developments within the variety of working-age adults, so one wouldn’t anticipate the patterns of robots to be uniform. That stated, it’s maybe price noting that whole US manufacturing jobs have been 12.3 million in January 2017 and 12.9 million in December 2023, even because the variety of robots per 10,000 US manufacturing staff went from 200 to 295. My very own opinion is that extra robots are a part of the productivity-enhancing resolution for a wholesome US manufacturing sector.
The IFR additionally stories some statistics on “service robots,” which don’t produce items. At current, these are primarily in transportation/logistics (suppose robotic automobile scooting round warehouses and factories) and in hospitality (which refers to “food and drink preparation robots as well as social interaction robots providing mobile guidance in retail stores, museums, and other public spaces”).
