COVID Forcing Companies to Move Faster Toward Automation

What does that mean for the masses of refugees and other immigrants waiting to find a spot on the chicken or pork processing line in America?

Frankly, it spells doom and our great minds in Washington had better be working on a plan for managing the millions admitted to the US each year as cheap expendable labor.

“As companies have recovered their revenues and reopened their supply chains, they have increasingly invested not on rehiring the workforce but on automation and on reducing their dependence on manpower.”

(Leslie Joseph at Foresters)

The story is from Forbes and it addresses one of the many changes coming to America in the wake of the Chinese virus ‘crisis.’

Coronavirus Is Forcing Companies To Speed Up Automation, For Better And For Worse

Coronavirus will force companies to speed up their plans to replace jobs with automation, according to a report published by analyst company Forrester. In its report, Forrester notes that many companies are set to invest more in automation than in rehiring in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, corroborating earlier reports that had claimed many businesses were already planning to accelerate their automation strategies.

The news comes as businesses ponder how they can resume working amid lockdowns and social distancing. And while many will take the news as confirmation of their worst automation-themed fears, Forrester’s report urges companies who haven’t already done so to ramp up their automation plans. Indeed, Forrester holds that automation may become key to surviving a coronavirus recession, at least as far as businesses are concerned.

Let’s hope some in Washington are thinking ahead, but don’t hold your breath!

Update:  After I had posted this story, I spotted this one at The New Yorker entitled:

An A.F.L.-C.I.O. Adviser Considers the Future of American Workers

It is all about Presidential politics, race and voting, but a key word is missing when Michael Podhorzer, the former political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., who now serves as a senior adviser to the union’s president, Richard Trumka, discusses the future of the American worker in the wake of COVID.

The missing word is AUTOMATION!