被机器人“下岗”的打工者

所属教程:金融时报原文阅读

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2020年08月17日

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被机器人“下岗”的打工者

随着工业机器人技术的逐渐成熟，智库称外来务工人员将慢慢被机器人取代。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

warehousing 储仓['weəhaʊzɪŋ]

auto-enrolment 自动加入

apprenticeship 学徒期；学徒身分[ə'prentɪ(s)ʃɪp]

precedent 先例；前例['presɪd(ə)nt]

susceptible 易受影响的[sə'septɪb(ə)l]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：那么，您的阅读速度相当于每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分0秒母语为英语者的朗读速度 140

1分48秒母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度 250

1分0秒母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度 350

0分42秒母语为英语的速读高手 1000

Robots could replace migrant workers, says think-tank （420 words）

By Delphine Strauss

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Britain’s decision to leave the EU will force companies that rely on migrant labour to rethink their business models, if it leads to restrictions on low-skilled immigration. For some, robots may be the most likely replacement, according to a report by the Resolution Foundation think-tank. Almost one third of the workforce in food manufacturing are EU migrants. More than a fifth of domestic personnel are from the EU, and more than one in eight workers in sectors ranging from agriculture to warehousing and textiles manufacturing.

An end to free movement of labour would – other things being equal — make it more costly to fill these jobs. Given other changes such as the living wage, auto-enrolment in workplace pensions and the apprenticeship levy, there will be a strong incentive for employers to invest in automation.

This does not have to be a bad thing, the think-tank argues. The ready supply of cheap workers has allowed UK employers to get away with relatively low levels of capital investment for many years, a trend that has become even more evident since the global financial crisis.

“What the UK needs – with its high employment, terrible productivity performance and low investment – is more robots,” said Adam Corlett, analyst at the Resolution Foundation. The think-tank suggests that new technologies will be crucial to a recovery in UK productivity and pay growth.

There is some precedent for employers replacing migrants with machines: in the US, mechanisation transformed California’s tomato industry when the supply of Mexican farm labourers through the Bracero programme ended.

However, some sectors — such as food manufacturing or food service — are far more susceptible to rapid automation than others. In other areas, such as cleaning or transport, there is far less scope for innovation. Employers are more likely to look again at training and career structures, and lobby government to allow immigration where there are sectoral shortages.

Automation — while it can destroy certain types of jobs, with serious effects on places and people — does not necessarily threaten overall employment, the report argues.

Middle-skilled manufacturing jobs have suffered a huge decline over the past 30 years as a share of total hours worked; but new roles have emerged in science, IT, health and caring. This helps to explain why there has been little change in the distribution of pay, while the UK employment rate has risen to a record high.

Both business and government, Mr Corlett concludes, must “make some pretty big calls on what investment and labour supply will look like in a post-Brexit economy”.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. What kind of industries may rethink their business models after Brexit?

A. technology-intensive industry

B. labour concentrated industry

C. technology-intensive industry

D. capital concentrated industry

2. Which one is not mentioned as a strong incentive for employers to invest in automation?

A. living wage

B. auto-enrolment in workplace pensions

C. cheap labour force

D. the apprenticeship levy

3. Which country’s employers have been replaced by machines in tomato industry?