Industry: 4.0 will bring unemployment

"We are at the beginning of a revolution, which brought a fundamental change in our lives, work, and relationships." In a recent World Economic Forum in Davos, organizer Klaus Schwab (KlausSchwab) said. Schwab said, there seems to be alarming. He said, by a computer-controlled, fully automatic, network production and service of high technology in a wide range of applications, such as using bots, China manufacturers and suppliers could lead to significant job losses in the future.

According to survey released in Davos, industrial 4.0 will not only have an impact on already realizes the entire automated plants, will also have adverse impact on the staff and services of the Office. Equipment, consultants, nurses, taxi drivers will face competition from high-tech. Frankfurter Allgemeine on Sunday reported that the survey, industrial 4.0 on the computer and high-tech fields leads to new jobs, but by 2020, will have 5 million jobs the jobs lost.

In the future, the industry 4.0 really will be a job killer? To answer this question, we need to go back to industry 4.0.

This is a derived from Germany's hot words, in short, is "the fourth industrial revolution" for short. (The first three are: industrial 1.0 from the invention of the steam engine started; industrial 2.0 introduced from 1870 the lines of Division of labor on; industry 3.0 began in 1969 with power and IT systems automation. ) Industry 4.0 is intelligence production--through cyber-physical systems (CyberphysicalSystem), to break down the barriers of all production data, wireless networks control everything.

In fact, looking back at history, every time when the world is facing a new technological revolution, people are very concerned that a large number of job losses. When textile and handicraft workshop systems were replaced by machines, traditional industries such as the textile industry because the introduction of new technologies lead to large numbers of people will be laid off. However, during the industrial revolution, old jobs disappear and new production technology revolution was born, why does not cause mass unemployment and social unrest?

United Kingdom Oxford University Professor Robert Allen in the global perspective of United Kingdom side answered on this issue in the industrial revolution: 17, since 18th century United Kingdom workers ' wage growth rate generally higher than in European countries, London has become the worker's wage the highest city in the world at the time. This United Kingdom employers trying to reduce labor costs in order to make products more competitive. Birth of new production technology can replace Manpower fit with their economic aspirations, which makes the bourgeoisie had to use new technologies, will and power of the industrial revolution, and in many countries of continental Europe, low wage labor costs than United Kingdom much cheaper, factory owners to improve production techniques to reduce cost will naturally low in a lot.

United Kingdom workforce higher wages made relatively wealthier General United Kingdom workers have the opportunity to put the money into education and skills training, and mastering new technologies. According to statistics, United Kingdom 1800 years literacy rate was 53% per capita, considerably more than in the same period of Germany, and France, and Austria and other countries, and literacy rate in these countries still maintain levels in the late Middle Ages. Allen wrote: "in terms of education and training, United Kingdom the literacy and numeracy of people significantly, this obviously helped them invent more new products and new technologies over time, this past, the United Kingdom will gradually produce a huge number of skilled Machinists and technicians, in their head that strange ideas are more easily into the new production technologies. ”

Nearly a century after the transformation took place in the same industry. 19, 20 century, when United States business as a whole in the event of a revolution. The popular "Ford economy" makes automation a leading mainstream. Automatic production line and professional managers replace the skilled craftsmen of the past. This transformation was able to smoothly, without causing too much unemployment and social unrest, and the first industrial revolution, provided labour sectors as a whole made sufficient preparation.

According to statistics, at the end of 19th century, less than 3% of United States adults have a high school diploma. By 1920, that number continues to rise, with more than one-fourth of Americans finish high school and College. Those with higher knowledge of professional managers with better knowledge and higher incomes, so that they can buy their own production of bulk products. The changes in capitalism, sitanli·debuer had concluded, standardization, product design through mass production reduces costs, higher wages paid to labour three points was the cause of a smooth transition of the mode of social production in the period.

The summary can also be said is a summary of more than twice in the history of the industrial revolution. Inevitable thorough restructuring of production in industry 4.0 introduction of China will become a reality. Among them, the biggest challenge lies in the retraining of personnel being squeezed out of the job market. Always after the fundamental change could cause short-term unemployment problems, but in the long run, whether labour can complete the knowledge structure adjustment and new skills to match, is always the successful completion of an important factor in this shift.

Nobody doubts that the industry 4.0 brings new wealth, the question is who can get it. China expected to be beneficiaries of the industry 4.0, rather they were suffering. Industry changes are happening quietly and quickly. Private factory assembled in Dongguan, China, for example, there are still many active factories, but successful companies are increasingly using high-tech means to reduce dependence on human resources. This is a significant difference with the past. The New York Times reported that a former car plant in Alabama after moving to Dongguan, the formation of a specialized auto parts factory. In the production of the factory, bear a growing share of industrial robots, only employs 400 workers, two shifts a day. "China is no longer a low-cost country", the report said.

If China wants a smooth industrial transformation of 4.0 in the future, Living Room Sofa Manufacturers in accordance with the previous historical experience of the transformation of human industry, high salaries and update the knowledge structure of the labour force is essential. But today have lost the low labor cost advantages, and industry we carried forward the transition, choke, then of the United Kingdom and the United States was fully prepared yet? Our universal knowledge structure from the old manufacturing industries to 3.0 or even 2.0 way of thinking a step ahead, please?

If the answer is no, then industrial 4.0 does not mean good news for all of us.