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While the manufacturing jobs of yesteryear may never return, experts say new automation may entice some manufacturers to establish new operations in the United States. As President Trump and manufacturers talk about initiatives to bring manufacturing jobs back home, data still indicates that many of those jobs have long been lost to automation and technology. But while the manufacturing jobs of yesteryear may never return, experts say new automation may entice some manufacturers to establish new operations in the United States. The manufacturing sector has lost roughly 5 million jobs since 2000, at a time when production and output had been growing. According to a Ball State University , manufacturing grew by roughly 2.2 percent per year between 2006 and 2013, and while trade accounted for 13 percent of job losses, 88 percent of those losses were attributed to robots and “other factors at home.” Overall, most job losses in the sector have been due to productivity gains. Wolfgang Lehmacher, head of supply chain and transport industries at the World Economic Forum, said that factories simply don’t need as many workers as they used to because “robots are increasingly doing the work.” He said investment in automation and software has doubled the output of the average worker over the past two decades and that regardless of trade, robots are replacing workers at an accelerating pace. “Robots are going to change the economic calculus for manufacturing; and people will spend less time chasing low-cost labor.” While machines are now capable of doing amazing things, however, the good news is they are actually keep and create jobs. Today’s systems are smarter , more mobile, more collaborative and more adaptable. While machines of the past were often dangerous and had to be operated away from humans, newer ones can now function alongside […]