# A Better Integration of Industrial Robots in Romanian Enterprises and the Labour Market
## 2 Recent Evolutions in the Robotics Market
### Global Robotics Market: Main Dimensions, Considerations, and Impact
The employment growth rate for occupations falling under the incidence of automation, in the bottom half of the range, registered an average rate of 18%, while in the case of occupations at high risk of automation there was an average rate of 6% (i.e., assemblers had an average employment growth rate of 25% between 2012 and 2019, whilst at risk of automation of more than 35%; food preparation assistants with a risk of automation of 50.1% had an average employment growth rate of more than 40%). As noted by the above-mentioned report, there is no direct correlation that can be illustrated from an occupational perspective between the risk of automation and the employment growth rate. However, the report highlights that some differences between the lower-risk of automation and higher-risk of automation professions, in terms of employment and unemployment, may arise. Therefore, the question that we consider important to be addressed is whether society should be more afraid of work automation or rather of its potential failure to create inclusive jobs and training opportunities for its individuals, regardless of their current occupation or education levels. These kinds of questions are also illustrated by the correlation existing between the percentage change in the operational stock of robots (IFR calculates the operational stock of robots/country by adding annual deployments, assuming robots operate exactly 12 years and are withdrawn afterwards), on one hand, and the percentage change in the employment among countries, on the other hand; both being reported for the period 2012-2019 (Figure 3). We can note from Figure 3 above that, in the case of countries [23] with a significant increase in the operational stock of industrial robots, the change rate in employment followed the same ascending trend line; while, in the case of countries with a lower average investment rate in industrial robots, the employment rate still registered an ascending trend, but at a steadier pace of the growth rate. Another paper, based on a panel of industry-specific data collected from 17 different countries during the period 1993-2007, illustrated that \"an increased use of industrial robots is associated with an increase in labor productivity\". More specifically the authors observed that the calculated productivity growth rate based on conservative estimations \"comes to 0.36 percentage points, accounting for 15% of the aggregate economy-wide productivity growth\" [24]. The previously mentioned thesis also illustrated that the increase in industrial robot use contributed to an increase in selected countries' GDP by 0.37 percentage points. This result might be credited to the fact that an increase in productivity means fewer hours of work spent on the entire manufacturing and processing of a single product. Other important parallels between the density of industrial robots and potential economic growth were highlighted within the study led by [PERSON], a research analyst from Select USA [25] (SelectUSA is a governmental program that facilitates investments in the United States of America). The study considers data from the IFR and EUKLEMS [26] databases. It illustrates that, while among different industries, results in productivity, added value, and hours worked may vary, the average rate of productivity growth was 0.8% for each increment of one percent average growth rate of industrial robot density. The authors noticed that this productivity growth rate registered higher values among countries that were less robotized at the time when the study was developed. These findings are in line with _IFR_'s predictions for 2020-2022, estimating an average growth rate of 12% for the worldwide annual sales of industrial robots. Likewise, the International Data Corporation's (IDC) projections for this year anticipate that \"by 2022, 35% of repetitive work tasks in large enterprises will be automated and/or augmented\" [27] based on the implementation of AI, robotics, or intelligent process automation.