Unable to compete with foreign labor costs, rising costs of health care benefits, and with tax incentives to subsidize capital investments, more companies are looking to use more technology than hire employees. The Commerce Department has reported that company spending on technology has grown by 26 percent, while spending on labor has only grown by 2 percent. Since the economic recovery, hiring has still been slow, despite corporate profits being very high.
See "Companies Spend on Equipment, Not Workers", Catherine Rampell, The New York Times, June 9, 2011