Machines replace warehouse workers

Even though the warehouse sector has been growing at a record pace over the last few years, employment in the industry has risen only marginally from 2.8 million in 2018 to 2.9 million in 2021. This is one of the main findings of the latest report published jointly by SEGRO and employment agency Randstad. According to the study, automation has had a significant impact on the sector, resulting in fewer people being hired for certain positions such as machine operators (down from 12.9 pct to 3.7 pct) manual workers (down from 12.9 pct to 3.7 pct) and quality controllers. According to the report, automation is also holding down wage inflation within the sector with the majority of employers having no plans to raise pay. A total of 76 pct of employers declared that they would keep pay at current levels, which compares to 43 pct in 2018. This year 16 pct of employers in the sector declared they will be raising wages, which compares with 52 pct four years ago. Workers in the warehousing and light production sectors are more concerned with the stability of their employment with 69 pct voicing their concerns in the survey, which compares with 57 pct back in 2018. The trend of falling employment levels in the warehouse sector is more clearly visible than in the light production sector. Almost half of those employed in warehousing and light production are production workers while in 2018 they accounted for only 30.8 pct of the total.