Re:E-Commerce as a Jobs Engine? One Economist’s Unorthodox View
by Jabanga on Sunday July 23, 2017 @02:25AM
(#14831126)
Automation at fulfilment centres will drive down prices, which will increase the volume of goods ordered online. Given labour is the only major scarce input to production for most categories of goods, the decrease in prices (and by extension, the increase in number of goods shipped) should be roughly proportional to the decrease in labour hours needed per good, resulting in no net change in labour utilisation.
That said, one thing that makes sense to me is warehouse workers are a highly efficient use of labor, and as such it makes sense that it pays better than retail. Pretty much all of their time is spent doing something in service to a customer, while in retail there is a ton of standing around doing nothing, or worse, pestering customers with lots of "Can I help you with anything?"