The New Industrial Revolution is a Robot
The Honest Truth
A recent article in Wired Magazine laid down some hard to digest truth, by the end of this century, 70% of the workforce will be replaced by robots. This is an astounding figure and one that most certainly gives pause, but it won’t be the first time that a massive workforce shift on that scale has happened. During the industrial revolution, the vast majority of workers were farmers. Over the course of time, their jobs were slowly replaced with tractors and planes, and other various machinery that did the job of hundreds in a much more effective fashion. In the same way that the John Deere replaced the horse drawn plow, robots will replace humans in nearly every sector to some degree or another.
The Robots Are Already Here
Already, we are witnessing the decline of manufacturing job growth due to automation and the presence of robots in factory environments. We shop online and have robots sort our packages, with items magically appearing at our doorsteps. Translation software makes the arduous process of learning a foreign language less practical, even as robots (we call them computer software) track huge amounts of data to streamline a variety of business and marketing processes.
We Got a Job to Do
So, robots are coming or are here already. What are we to do? In the same way that 200 years ago the mechanization of farming opened up a wide range of new jobs that millions of workers soon filled, the coming of the robotic army will provide a similar opportunity for the prepared. The advancement, manufacturing, and development of these robots, at least for now, falls to humans. In the future, they will certainly be able to design and build themselves, but for the time being that task falls to us. With the inevitability of their arrival on a much wider scale, the wise will position themselves to work on and work beside their robo-counterparts.
Fortune Favors the Prepared
And while this may all seem like an occurrence far in the future, the robotic revolution is happening around us as we speak, and it is the human engineer, programmer, technician, and designer who is driving it forward. Those with the right skills will be able to integrate themselves into the workforce working on and working with robots as their presence grows within a variety of industries. Demand for these skilled workers is already very high.
You Might Be in High Demand
According to data provided by Careerbuilder.com, over the last two years there were 23,000 job postings for engineers, technicians, and software developers in the field of robotics with only 4,566 people qualified to fill those roles. Nearly 20,000 jobs are available for those with the skills or those willing to acquire those skills. Individuals with a Master’s degree level education can expect to make $86,938 a year. For Bachelor’s degree holders, that figure moves to $81,818. While there is not a high demand in this field for those having only an Associate’s degree, finding a job in this field with that level of education will net an average of $65,000 a year.
The demand for qualified individuals is high and employers are willing to pay well for those with the skills to excel. However, not every region of the country has available jobs in this industry. The top states for jobs in the robotics field are Texas, California, and Florida, with 10 out of the top 20 cities for robotics careers in one of these states. Careerbuilder uses a complex algorithm to generate what they call a hiring indicator score that measures how easy or hard it is to be hired or recruit in each city for a given industry. Melbourne, FL ranked as the best city for a career in robotics with a hiring indicator score of 64 out of 100. Houston, TX (60); Dallas, TX (58); Orlando, FL (58); and Indianapolis, IN (58) round out the top five cities for robotics.
We’re Here to Help
The robots are coming, there’s no way around it. Every day they become more complex and capable, all while slowly supplanting the old jobs that we had to do before their arrival. This transition is something we have all seen before, and new jobs are already available and in high demand for a robust and exciting industry. If you have experience already working with robots or are curious about the new opportunities provided by the industry, Global Recruiters Network Chapel Hill can guide you through the necessary skills required to bring your knowledge to bear in this exciting and rapidly changing industry, while working hard to help you understand what the perfect job for you can be.
