NEW YORK - U.S. companies are responding to the lowest unemployment rate in almost 50 years by increasing their focus on automation in order to maintain healthy margins as labor costs tick higher, a Reuters analysis of corporate earnings transcripts shows.
Citigroup Inc, for instance, said that it is expanding its cloud infrastructure to replace routine tasks that used to require human labor. Health insurance company UnitedHealth Group told investors that its automation efforts should save the company over $1 billion next year. And Corona beer brewer Constellation Brands Inc said that its spending on automation should increase the efficiency in which it packs bottles in a variety pack, shaving costs.
Overall, companies have discussed automation on quarterly earnings calls more than 1,110 times since the beginning of the year, a 15% increase from this time last year and nearly double the mentions by this time in October, 2016, according to Refinitiv data. Corporate orders of robotics alone rose 7.2% over the first half of this year compared with 2018, totaling $869 million in spending, according to the Association for Advancing Automation.
Watson said that he is now buying companies that are benefiting from the use of automation because they trade at much more attractive valuations than the companies that provide it, which he is steering clear of. The fastest-growing sectors of automation are in logistics and healthcare, said Jeremie Capron, head of research at ROBO Global, the company behind the $1.2-billion Robo Global Robotics & Automation ETF. The firm’s ETF is up nearly 20% for the year to date, in line with the performance of the benchmark S&P 500 index.
Worker shortage ? Strange !
where are all of Trump supporters, already employed or collecting welfare?
.....facing cheap labor shortage..... FixedItForYou
Robots now taking our jobs very soon robots will start taking oir girlfriends
1993. Kempton Park.
Tell them to hire me...
Well that's one thing you can blame on Trump
AndrewYang
Excuse to automate, let us all tell the truth.
U.S. companies facing slave wage worker shortage race to automate to non wage robots. Fixed your headline for ya.
They could do job training if they wanted to.
So which is it? We are heading for a recession or employment so low that companies can't find enough employees for all the business?
This is inflation at work. Rising costs.
What was that EWarren said about economics and the limited effect of automation on jobs?
whenever practicable and financially possible, automate. employees are a huge expense. companies reviewing their budgets can see where the most revenue is being spent, employees comes up time and again.
Sounds like we need more immigrants.
'companies appear to be confronting the lack of low-cost workers by investing in software' There isn't a lack of workers, the companies just don't want to pay workers a living wage
US Companies should look to California then...but then we'd see it has nothing to do with 'worker shortage' and more with 'bottom line' and costs
Viscous downward cycle.
Plot twist: The Robots save us.
What a total lie.