According to Martin Ford in the New York Times: “tens of millions of factory workers are now increasingly being displace by machines with significant consequences for China’s economy – and the world’s.”
Last year, Chinese factories used 25 percent of the world’s robots, up 54% from 2013. In Guangdong, a leading appliance manufacturer is replacing 6.000 employees, a fifth of the workforce, with robots at the end of the year. Foxcomm, which makes products for Apple, Sony and Microsoft, will automate 70 percent of its factory work within three years. But as China reduces its factory jobs, it is not creating new ones. “The country is already struggling to employ its growing population of college graduates.”
Schools prepare students for the work force. As jobs disappear (given to robots) how will schools prepare workers for the new jobs?