The robots are coming — but not in numbers that would imperil most Americans' jobs. Few subjects have inspired as much hype as robots. Consider some sample headlines: "Robots and computers could take half our jobs within the next 20 years," "Robots could put humans out of work by 2045," "Why the highest-paid doctors are the most vulnerable to automation."
Here's why you should be skeptical, at least in the near term.
First, there's little evidence that robots have yet had much effect on job creation in the current recovery. Since a low point of payroll jobs in February 2010, the U.S. economy has added 14 million jobs. These figures surely obscure countless thousands of jobs lost to automation, but that's a normal part of a dynamic economy.