WASHINGTON—Addressing the continued plight of the nation’s long-term unemployed, Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez offered his assurances Tuesday that the United States still has plenty of job opportunities for people willing to outwork robots.
During a morning press conference, Perez told reporters that while he sympathizes with the frustration felt by out-of-work Americans, the nation currently has more than 8 million jobs open to anyone who will work harder, faster, and more dependably than an industrial robot specially designed to perform the same set of tasks.
While Perez confirmed that workers with traditional manufacturing skills will continue to face a lean employment market that has shrunk some 35 percent since the late 1970s, he said the outlook is much brighter for those who can exert a clamping force greater than 4.5 million pounds on injection molds.“Those are the kinds of occupations where we’re seeing a red-hot job market right now,” he added.
The labor secretary acknowledged that 10.3 percent of the U.S.
“Once you’ve surpassed the production output of the most sophisticated robots currently operating in American factories, the sky’s the limit, and you should have no problem securing long-term employment and supporting your family,” Perez said. “If, for example, you know how to pick up a sheet metal blank with your bare hands and turn it into a finished automotive component in less than 37 seconds, you should definitely start getting your résumé out to car manufacturers.
But even for people who are not physically capable of working in an oxygen-free environment or spotting an object six inches in diameter from an altitude of 20,000 feet, there are still many employment opportunities out there, according to the labor secretary.“If you’re unable to outperform a robot as a manual laborer, there are plenty of jobs that allow you to make a living with your brain rather than your hands,” Perez said.
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