The incorporation of technology in the industrial processes has boosted the manufacturing processes. The introduced automation in these processes has increased productivity, enhanced efficiency, and mitigated delays or errors while manufacturing. These improvements have revolutionized industrialization and sped up the process of industries. However, this advent of tech has not come without its collateral negative consequences. It has caused a loss of jobs for middle-class workers in the US.
More machines in the industrial sector have removed the need for humans in the assembly line and other processes. Moreover, the salaries and wages of these line workers have been approximately the same for the past ten years which has restricted the growth of the industry workers and limited them from experiencing expansion in career.
Since the 1980s, middle-class industry workers have been losing their jobs to machines. According to a new study, automation has impacted the wage structure of middle-class jobs by a whopping 70% since 1980. The machines have replaced humans which has raised unemployment to significant levels and increased the income gap. However, when compared to the increase in productivity due to automation, the recent onset of the pandemic has augmented productivity by an impressive 5.4% in the first 3 months of 2021.
This automation, combined with the contribution of employees, has exhibited a surge in productivity as well. This increase can give a pass to the employees for asking for higher pays because more productivity is leading to more sales and profit generation. More advancement in technology is most likely to take the jobs away from workers. This might seem like a cause for increased unemployment. However, the patterns of automation caused by advancement from the past years depict that this technological change leads to the displacement of jobs, but it does not mean that the jobs are not going to be available anymore. More jobs, of different arenas open and almost, offset the loss of jobs caused by the increased automation in the industry.