After waiting for months for employees to return to work, some businesses are fed up, writes Insider.
By the end of June, only 10 percent of job seekers in the United States were in urgent need of employment, according to a study by Indeed. Whether due to fears of the virus, childcare costs, sufficient savings or additional unemployment benefits, the unemployed are not looking for work urgently. Which hits mostly restaurants and hotels.
And here comes the QR code. The technology that helps restaurants save the need for a waiter to carry the menu of customers is the basis of another wave of automation. There are other signs that robots are replacing humans, at least in restaurants.
The inability of restaurants to find enough staff has been going on for several months now, with some chains starting to offer one-off bonuses and even an iPhone for anyone starting a business – but without much success. Because of this, some of them began to turn to technology to replace some employees.
Cracker Barrel has launched a mobile app that allows customers to pay for the drinks and food they consume; McDonald’s has begun testing automated car orders at 10 locations in Chicago; Dave & Buster’s plans to expand the possibility of digital orders.
The benefits are clear. Automated solutions are often a one-time investment and increase productivity. They don’t need special bonuses just to get started.
Economic data suggest that the trend intensified several months ago. Productivity grew by 5.4% in the first quarter of 2021 – the fastest pace in over 20 years.
Businesses that have begun to adopt new technologies make no secret that robots will replace humans.
On the other hand, people have long feared that new technologies will destroy many jobs and cut wage growth. This type of thinking is summarized by the term Luditi, a social movement in Britain from the first years of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Workers, part of it, are destroying the machines that have taken their jobs.
But are the technologies bad? The utilization of technological innovation has increased productivity over the last few hundred years of economic history. It is higher productivity that enables employees to demand higher salaries. Higher wages, on the other hand, bring increased economic activity, which increases the demand on the labor market.
Economist Noah Smith wrote recently that in previous periods of innovation – since the Industrial Revolution – they have not destroyed jobs, but moved them.
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