In Factories, Robots Struggle to Do What Humans Do

You've heard it before: Robots are coming for our jobs. But are they really? It turns out that robots aren’t as common in U.S. factories as you might think. In 2019, only 11.1% of U.S. manufacturing plants reported that they used robots, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Part of the reason might be that it’s difficult to engineer robots to do the same things that humans do. WSJ reporter Lauren Weber visited the Alene Candles factory in New Albany, Ohio to get a glimpse of what automation really looks like, and whether it helps or hurts workers. Alex Ossola hosts.

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You've heard it before: Robots are coming for our jobs. But are they really? It turns out that robots aren’t as common in U.S. factories as you might think. In 2019, only 11.1% of U.S. manufacturing plants reported that they used robots, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Part of the reason might be that it’s difficult to engineer robots to do the same things that humans do. WSJ reporter Lauren Weber visited the Alene Candles factory in New Albany, Ohio to get a glimpse of what automation really looks like, and whether it helps or hurts workers. Alex Ossola hosts.

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