Replaced by Robots? Not Yet
Alumna and Senior Research Specialist at UIC's Great Cities Institute Beth Gutelius, MUPP '09, PhD '16, researches the impact of automation on warehouse workers, a hot topic that's generating national headlines. Gutelius was quoted in a recent Associated Press story titled "As robots take over warehousing, workers are pushed to adapt." In it, Gutelius talks about the burnout among humans working side-by-side with robots and notes that the pressure to speed up performance are taking a toll on human workers' health.
In October 2019, Gutelius published a co-authored "The Future of Warehouse Work: Technological Change in the U.S. Logistics Industry," a report on her research that addresses technological change and its impact on humans. "The industry likely won’t experience dramatic job loss over the next decade, though many workers may see the content and quality of their jobs shift as technologies are adopted for particular tasks." The report was published by UC Berkeley's Labor Center.