A “Red Alert” for workers: Businesses embrace automation during the COVID-19 Pandemic
There are many changes the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created; one of these changes that seemed expensive by business owners just before the pandemic began was investing in automation.
GRI Faculty Affiliate, Nada Sander was featured on News@Northeastern for her thoughts as to how the current, momentary labor shortage driven in part by “The Great Resignation”, a wave that has spurred millions of American workers to thier quit jobs, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supply-chain shortages and other business interruptions related to the pandemic are also contributing to the dramatic shift toward automation by U.S. companies. There is critical demand for workers across every sector—from hospitality to restaurants to nursing to truck drivers, you name it,” says Sanders. “But that leverage is going to rapidly shrink and go away.
“This is a red alert for workers who need to understand that many of their jobs are going to be pushed out by technology,” Sanders says. “And once they go, it’s unlikely they will be coming back.”