U.S. companies installed more robots in 2018 than ever before, thanks to a decrease in prices and an increase in flexibility. And for the first time ever, car plants aren’t accounting for more than half of those sales.
Shipments of robots grew by nearly 16 percent from 2017 to 2018, reports Reuters. And that growth touched on a wide array of industry sectors. Shipments to food and consumer goods companies , for example, increased by 60 percent, while growth in electronics plants and metal producers went up by 50 percent and 13 percent respectively.
Companies are feeling political pressure to bring overseas work back to the U.S. And to be competitive, they’re countering higher U.S. labor costs by automating jobs. So, while the work may return to U.S., it may not have a positive impact on the nation’s employment rate. Metro Plastics Technologies, Inc. in Indiana, for example, replaced three forklift drivers with one robot.