Catherwood LibraryILR School

Amazon continues to face long-standing criticism that it has hurt the traditional brick-and-mortar retail industry with the ease of its online ordering, but the company’s continuing growth has created an unending need for entry level workers. Amazon’s workforce is currently three times larger than Microsoft’s and 18 times larger than Facebook’s; last week Amazon announced that it would be building a second headquarters that would create another 50,000 jobs. Since 2014, Amazon has been implementing automation (100,000+ robots and counting) that would convert warehouse work into less physically demanding tasks while also increasing efficiency gains in order to handle the volume of orders without losing money. Jobs that previously required 10 hours of manual labor involving stacking 25 pound bins are now handled by robotic arms and giant electronic beetles carrying up to 3000 pounds of inventory. The workers that used to shift the bins aren’t complaining that the robots have replaced this tiring task; instead, their new duties are no longer physically repetitive and require mental engagement as they oversee the robots - troubleshooting technical issues and ensuring that inventory exists to fill the bins. Workers were not laid off when the robots were implemented, and new roles were found for those who were displaced. Amazon believes it's a myth that automation hinders net job growth, but it remains to be seen whether job creation will slow as automation becomes increasingly sophisticated.