The Impact of Changes in Industrial Robots Supply on the Level of Employment in Selected European Countries

Abstract

Europe is a region with the highest density of robots in industry. The aim of the article is to analyse the dynamics of annual robots supplies in five selected European countries and to identify a connection between the supplies and changes in employment. The one-way analysis of variance used in the study allowed concluding that the average increase of industrial robots supplies in Germany, Italy, France, Spain as well as in Great Britain differed significantly in particular years and depended primarily on the economic situation. A positive correlation between the supplies and annual changes in employment was observed, which may result from the fact that the robots are substitutes for tasks performed in given professions but they do not replace them completely.