A survey by Wuhan University Institute of Quality Development Strategy has revealed that machinery and robotics are set to take over nearly 5% of China’s workers in the next five years.
The report, which surveyed nearly 2,000 companies in China, found was that the use of robotics rose from 12% in 2008 to 37% in 2017.
It also found that robot use had grown from 8.1% to 13.4% between 2015 and 2017.
Furthermore, in those two years, the average annual growth rate of investments in robotics was 57%. However, the report went on to state that this rise mostly impacted workers with the lowest levels of education.
In those same two years, robots replaced 9.4% of employees with a junior high school degree or below.
According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China has become a global leader in automation.
The organisation reported that from 2018 to 2020 “a sales increase between 15-20% on average per year is possible for industrial robots”.
“China is by far the biggest robot market in the world regarding annual sales and regarding the operational stock,” said Joe Gemma, president of the IFR.
“It is the fastest growing market worldwide. There has never been such a dynamic rise in such a short period of time in any other market.”
