Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Let’s be real: Robots doing the heavy lifting in Amazon warehouses is nothing new; They have been sorting and moving packages for over a decade. But that was just the beginning.
Amazon is now reportedly planning to make its human workforce much less essential. according to New York TimesThe company is looking for an alternative Replace more than half a million jobs Its human staff staffs a new and expanded robotic army.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased technical content and lab reviews. Add CNET As Google’s preferred source.
Internal Amazon documents indicate that the company is looking to build and use more robots to replace human workers. The post does not specify whether this will result in significant layoffs of workers. However, the robots will allow Amazon to avoid hiring new workers to meet growing demand, translating into replacing 600,000 jobs by 2033, according to the report.
Amazon announced in June that it had achieved a workforce milestone by deploying more than 1 million robots in its fulfillment and delivery network, making it about two-thirds the size of the company’s human workforce. The Times reported that Amazon documents show that the company’s goal is to automate 75% of its operations.
The shift to increasing the role of robots in Amazon warehouses could save the company billions of dollars each year. Brian Novak, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, estimates annual savings will reach $4 billion by 2027, according to a recent report. CNBC report.
The report also says the company wants to mitigate the fallout in communities that may lose jobs. Documents show the company has considered building its image as a “good corporate citizen” through greater involvement in community events such as local parades and children’s games. The leaked documents discuss avoiding the use of terms like automation and artificial intelligence, and instead using terms like “high technology,” and replacing the word “robot” with “cobot” to indicate collaboration.
“Leaked documents often paint an incomplete and misleading picture of our plans, and that’s the case here,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNET in an email. “In this case, the materials appear to reflect the view of only one team and do not represent our overall hiring strategy across our various operations business lines – now or moving forward.”
“No company has created more jobs in America over the past decade than Amazon,” the spokesperson said, and that the company is actively hiring at operations facilities, with plans to fill 250,000 positions for the holiday season.
Impact on jobs
Amazon is the third-largest employer in the United States, after the federal government and Walmart. To date, the company employs an estimated 1.5 million employees, most of whom work in warehouses or as delivery drivers.
Only a few companies in the United States have more than 600,000 employees on the payroll. Delivery company FedEx has an estimated 550,000 employees. Downsizing, the Times reported, would be like FedEx disappearing entirely.
studies It’s done On the impact of robots on human wages. As of 2020, every robot a company adds for every 1,000 workers reduces wages in the United States by 0.42%, and costs humans an estimated 400,000 jobs.
“Our investments will continue to create significant job opportunities, with a focus on higher-paying jobs,” Amazon said in an email. “In particular, as noted in the New York Times story, efficiency gains in one area enable us to invest in other areas – both existing and brand-new – that create additional value for customers. While it is difficult to accurately predict the future, our track record shows that we have consistently been major job creators while simultaneously investing in upskilling our workforce for evolving roles.”