Fact of the Week: Each Industrial Robot Installed in Recent Years Created Between 13 and 16 Jobs

Source: John Chung and Yong Suk Lee, “The Evolving Impact of Robots on Jobs,” ILR Review, March 2023, 76(2), 290–319.

Commentary: In a recently published paper, economists Jon Chung and Yong Suk Lee found that robot adoption has been associated with higher levels of employment and wages in recent years. Studying the period from 2005 to 2016, the authors found that, while robots initially led to lower employment and wages for affected workers, that trend reversed as firms and workers adjusted to the broader adoption of robots in production. Specifically, the report estimates that installing one industrial robot added between 13 and 16 jobs. The paper adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that robots are not labor-displacing on net but instead contribute to a more robust economy and labor market.