The hottest reasonable coordination between robot

In recent years, with the continuous advancement of automation and the continuous progress of artificial intelligence, industrial robots are more and more widely used. By 2019, the stock of industrial robots in the world has reached 2.72 million. As a large manufacturing country and the second largest economy in the world, China has realized the important strategic significance of the intelligent robot industry as early as 2006, and proposed to include intelligent robots in the cutting-edge technology of advanced manufacturing technology in the outline of the national medium and long term scientific and technological development plan (2006 2020)

since 2013, the state has successively issued a large number of national, industrial and regional incentive policies with strong guiding effects. These policies have greatly promoted the rapid development of China's robot industry chain, and the use of industrial robots has gradually jumped to the first in the world. Since the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 has seriously restricted the flow of people. In order to avoid cross infection among employees and reduce the uncertainty of production and operation, more and more enterprises have begun to consider using robots to replace ordinary labor. With the booming robot industry, the growing demand for industrial robots and the fact that only 80% of the minimum wage in Guangzhou is paid to employees waiting for jobs every month, it is more necessary to coordinate the relationship between robot application and labor employment

fully understand the impact of industrial robots

industrial robots have natural advantages in ease of use and stability, which makes industrial robots have competitive advantages that ordinary labor forces cannot match in monotonous, frequent, long-time repetitive and harsh work environment. As a substitute for ordinary labor, the large-scale application of industrial robots is bound to reduce the comparative advantage of ordinary labor in the job market. Industrial robots have a weak impact on the labor market in industries that require high abilities of independent judgment, emotional analysis and innovation. However, in the industry with high work repeatability and the ability to use a large number of manipulator to replace ordinary labor, the large-scale use of industrial robots has seriously damaged the employment of ordinary labor

at the same time, with the changes in population structure, job selection standards and the protection of workers' rights and interests, the employment cost of enterprises is gradually increasing, which will also gradually improve the competitive advantage of industrial robots. For industries with low labor capacity requirements and a relatively large proportion of employees with low academic qualifications, labor skills are relatively simple and monotonous. At this time, the large-scale introduction of industrial robots with low comprehensive costs can effectively reduce the long-term labor costs of enterprises

nevertheless, considering that the Chinese government has strong macro-regulation ability on the employment market, the robot decision-making of enterprises will also be affected by relevant external factors. For example, in areas with strong labor protection, the institutional cost of enterprises replacing ordinary labor with robots is lower, which may strengthen the use of industrial robots by local enterprises. In areas with high unemployment rate, in order to ensure employment and people's livelihood and maintain social harmony and stability, local governments may reverse the decision-making of industrial robots in enterprises to try to avoid further deterioration of the unemployment rate

while robots are gradually introduced to replace labor in some industries, local supply and demand imbalance will gradually appear in the labor market, so that the wiper can effectively remove the snow on the cover. With the continuous expansion of robot application scale, this local imbalance will gradually spread to other industries. On the one hand, labor will flow along the product supply chain. As industrial robots continue to improve the productivity and per capita output of upstream industries, the prices of upstream products will continue to decrease, thereby reducing the production costs of downstream enterprises, which will induce downstream enterprises to gradually expand production scale and increase the demand for ordinary labor. On the other hand, the labor force will also choose the flow direction based on the substitutability of industry labor. After the labor force with low human capital in the industry where a large number of industrial robots are introduced is replaced by robots, part of the labor force will gradually transfer to other industries with low labor requirements, so as to realize reemployment and stabilize family income as soon as possible

it should be noted that although the large-scale use of industrial robots will damage employment in the short term, in the medium and long term, the application of industrial robots has a significant spillover effect, which can realize the reconstruction of the labor market by creating new jobs, and ultimately help to increase total social employment. At the same time, the use of industrial robots increases the average human capital of workers in the existing industry; On the other hand, it will also divert a large number of labor into new industries that robots can't deal with, which will help improve the comparative advantage of labor, and then improve the average salary of workers

achieve a win-win situation between robot application and employment

in the face of the irresistible trend of the times of industrial robots, we can not only focus on its role in improving production efficiency and blindly promote related industries, but also can not be too afraid of its negative impact and hold a negative attitude. To mediate the contradiction between industrial robots improving production efficiency and damaging short-term employment, we need to actively coordinate the relationship between production and employment in different regions and industries from various angles

first, comprehensively recognize the impact of robots beyond improving production efficiency, especially the problem of technical unemployment. When formulating government and industrial policies related to industrial robots, and even internal decisions of the company, policymakers should not only pay attention to the role of robot development and large-scale application in improving production efficiency, but also carefully consider the impact of robot application on the local labor market or existing employees of the enterprise. In order to minimize the damage of industrial robots to the employment market, we should pay more attention to the industries where robots are widely used, track the direction of labor flow in time, and ensure the smooth flow of labor. At the same time, we should also pay more attention to the current situation of industries that still need policies to encourage. We should not only promote the substantial improvement of production efficiency, but also meet the demand for reemployment of labor through other measures. While promoting the transformation of industry to intelligent manufacturing, we should strengthen all-round vocational training and education for employees to alleviate the problem of technical unemployment caused by robot applications within enterprises

second, accurately grasp the differences between different industries and regions, and avoid adopting one size fits all policies and methods. In different regions, the impact of robot application on labor employment is different. Therefore, according to the development stage and employment status in different regions, we should launch the development strategy of adjusting measures to local conditions, so as to improve production efficiency and minimize the impact of robot application on the labor market. For example, comprehensively and continuously enhance the competitive advantage of existing workers, and actively respond to the development trend of the robot industry

third, comprehensively consider the relationship between different industries and regions, and avoid adopting policies and methods of fighting alone. As the industry should be able to return the pendulum balance to the increase in the use of robots, the changes and imbalances in the job market will gradually spread to neighboring areas and other industries with deep connections, especially downstream industries in the industrial chain, industries with similar labor attributes, etc. Relevant management departments can make appropriate policies to take advantage of the spillover effect of robot applications, promote the coordinated three-dimensional development between different industries and regions, so as to more efficiently regulate production and employment, gradually and orderly improve production efficiency and achieve industrial upgrading, while minimizing the negative impact of robot applications on the economy and society, especially on the labor employment market

it is particularly necessary to accurately and comprehensively identify the impact of robot applications on China's labor market. On the one hand, this can enable the government to formulate supporting policies more effectively and guide the development of the robot industry; On the other hand, it is also conducive to the government to formulate targeted macroeconomic policies to alleviate the impact of the large-scale application of industrial robots on the employment market and the national economy