Automation and humans inextricably linked

摘要

As we rolled into 2020 with an unemployment rate of 3.5%, our warehouse and distribution center operations were experiencing one of the tightest labor markets the United States has ever experienced. The lack of enough engaged recruits for our open positions had become the "silent crisis" facing a vast number of businesses, posing a serious threat to the continued momentum of e-commerce fulfillment operations. In a matter of weeks this spring, record low unemployment numbers were flipped upside down, presenting what many in our market believed would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a new workforce by promoting essential, stable and well-paid careers in materials handling and supply chain to those workers who had been displaced. I was among them, thinking that the floodgates would swing open and our labor drought would finally be quenched. At press time, we're finding that it's more of a trickle than an outright flood; however we are seeing some forward momentum in the right direction.