The other day I was shopping at a large retail store with a shopping cart full of groceries and other items for the house and yard.

I had too many items for the express lane, but with only four other checkout lanes open, I was tempted to try it anyway.

Instead, I was steered toward the dreaded self-checkout area, which really doesnt have enough room for everyone trying to use the registers there.

I dont mind checking out my own things it can be quite convenient when you have only a few items. If you have a lot, its not so convenient.

Automation is nothing new, of course, but more machines are doing things humans used to do.

For example, the Changying Precision Technology Co. in China makes mobile phones and uses automated production lines. The factory used to be run by 650 employees, but now just 60 people get the entire job done, while robots take care of the rest.

According to Monetary Watch, Luo Weiqiang, the general manager of the company, says the number of required employees will drop to 20 at some point. While there are fewer factory workers, the robots are producing more equipment (a 250 percent increase). Quality also has improved.

And youve probably seen the stories of some fast food chains experimenting with ordering kiosks, replacing the cashiers who normally do that. I wouldnt be surprised at seeing more in the future.

Still, not everything can or should be automated.

In an email sent recently by Ball State University, two Northeast Mississippi counties Chickasaw and Benton were said to be at risk to automation. Three counties were at risk to offshoring (jobs being moved to another country) include Pontotoc, Tippah and Chickasaw.

How Vulnerable Are American Communities to Automation, Trade and Urbanization? was prepared by the Center for Business and Economic Research and the Rural Policy Institutes Center for State Policy at Ball State University.

Automation is likely to replace half of all low-skilled jobs, says CBER director Michael Hicks. Communities where people have lower levels of educational attainment and lower incomes are the most vulnerable to automation. Considerable labor market turbulence is likely in the coming generation.

The analysis also found that roughly one in four of all American jobs are at risk from foreign competition in the coming years.

More worrisome is that there is considerable concentration of job loss risks across labor markets, educational attainment and earnings, Hicks says. This accrues across industries and is more pronounced across urban regions, where economies have concentrated all net new employment in the U.S. for a generation.

So should the residents and workers in those communities be worried about their jobs going to robots or going overseas?

Ive got a pretty good idea why Chickasaw, Tippah and Pontotoc made the list of offshoring manufacturing makes up more than 43 percent of the workforce in Chickasaw, 34 percent in Tippah and 54 percent in Pontotoc.

Its quite natural to assume that those manufacturing jobs can easily be sent overseas.

But using robots to build upholstered furniture isnt something youll see much of. Its still a very labor-intensive job that requires people.

By the way, the Ball State study said the 10 most off-shorable occupations included computer programmers, data entry keyers, electrical and electronic drafters, mechanical drafters and computer and information research scientists.

The study also said the 10 most automatable occupations included data entry keyers, mathematical science occupations, telemarketers, insurance underwriters and mathematical technicians.

So take that for what its worth.

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Automation can make life better and worse | Business | djournal.com - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal