Outwardly, the McDonalds restaurant just off Highway 101 in Pismo Beach doesn’t look any different from the 1,500 or so others in California.
But when you walk into this one, you immediately encounter a robotic kiosk that allows you to order your hamburger or other fast food on a touch screen, rather than verbally with a human worker at the counter.
It’s an experiment in automation, or at least mechanization, to reduce operational costs, and not the only one.
Faced with rising labor costs, thanks in part to a big boost in California’s minimum wage, and shortages of workers, employers throughout the state are trying to replace human labor with machines.
Amazon’s highly automated warehouses that have seemingly sprung up overnight throughout the state are testaments to that desire, as are intensified efforts in large-scale, labor-intensive agriculture to develop machinery that can handle even the most delicate crops such as strawberries.
While workers with high technical skills and/or high levels of education will still command high pay and have no shortage of opportunities in California, there’s a lot of turbulence in the lower realms of the state’s job market, such as fast food and agriculture.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article193029289.html#storylink=cpy
But when you walk into this one, you immediately encounter a robotic kiosk that allows you to order your hamburger or other fast food on a touch screen, rather than verbally with a human worker at the counter.
It’s an experiment in automation, or at least mechanization, to reduce operational costs, and not the only one.
Faced with rising labor costs, thanks in part to a big boost in California’s minimum wage, and shortages of workers, employers throughout the state are trying to replace human labor with machines.
Amazon’s highly automated warehouses that have seemingly sprung up overnight throughout the state are testaments to that desire, as are intensified efforts in large-scale, labor-intensive agriculture to develop machinery that can handle even the most delicate crops such as strawberries.
While workers with high technical skills and/or high levels of education will still command high pay and have no shortage of opportunities in California, there’s a lot of turbulence in the lower realms of the state’s job market, such as fast food and agriculture.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article193029289.html#storylink=cpy
