70% of U.S. Workers Want Robots To Help - automatica Report 2025
Survey of 1,000 employees in the US
US workers welcome robot technology in the workplace: About 70% think that robots help manufacturers to deal with the lack of factory workers ensuring competitiveness. Two-thirds believe the use of robots will help to bring industrial production back home. These are findings of the automatica Trend Index 2025. The study surveyed 1,000 employees in the US on behalf of automatica, the world's leading trade fair for robotics and automation (24-27 June in Munich, Germany).
The US government is actively working to bring industrial production back to the United States. As the world's most advanced manufacturing countries have shown, robots are the key to integrating automation into a factory: China has more than doubled the ratio of robots to factory workers in four years (2018-2022), and now ranks third in the world. Robot density in China reached 470 robots per 10,000 workers in 2023, compared to 295 units in the United States, which ranks tenth, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
2.1 million unfilled jobs
The push for automation technology is strongly driven by labor shortages. The Manufacturing Institute (MI) predicts that nearly 2.1 million manufacturing jobs will go unfilled by 2030 due to a lack of skilled workers. The automatica trend index shows that US workers welcome robots to take over dirty, dull and dangerous tasks: A strong majority of 75% believe that robots reduce the risk of injury to humans by performing tasks such as heavy lifting. 73% see robots as an important solution for handling hazardous materials. 65% say robots will assist workers, allowing older people to stay in work longer.
"Showing how robots can take over repetitive or dangerous tasks, while allowing workers to focus on higher-value jobs, is important for the successful integration of robotics into a factory workforce," says Patrick Schwarzkopf, advisory board member of automatica at Messe München in Germany. "Driven by a number of technological innovations such as artificial intelligence, easy-to-use programming or cost-saving efficiency, industrial robotics is becoming more accessible to companies than ever before. This will be demonstrated at the world's leading trade fair for intelligent automation and robotics 'automatica 2025' from June 24 to 27 in Munich, Germany.
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