It can be seen that many tasks requiring physical hard work can be done with the appearance of different complex machines that results from the impressive development of technology. This may lead to both benefits and also several disadvantages, with the outweigh of benefits.
On the one hand, it is clear that the displacement of the labor force, particularly in industries or some similar sectors in which manual labor used to be an important component, thereby lowering their job opportunities as well as wages for those who can still find a job. Furthermore, as automation replaces certain jobs, workers’ skill sets can be obsolescent, which can cost a lot to let them acquire new skills, especially older labors. For instance, recently, after automating the manufacturing process, Foxconn, a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer, has to retrain and help their employees find suitable jobs.
However, the automatic process advantages still prevail. One of the crucial reasons is that machine replacement can help reduce a lot of risk, by protecting physically-demanding tasks workers from different injuries and some respiratory diseases such as pneumoconiosis with long-term labors as it is still able to work in environments that would be dangerous and harmful for humans. In addition, machines can complete repetitive tasks with faster speed, higher accuracy and consistency compared to humans, leading to increasing goods quantity with more comprehensive quality.
In conclusion, automation has led to some negative effects for laborers’ jobs, such as being unemployed, which need to be solved adequately by each business to avoid hardship for displaced workers. Nevertheless, by protecting peoples’ health and enhancing the production process speed and quality, its positive effects still outweigh the other side.