Robotics and Reshoring : Employment Implications for Developing Countries

Much of the discussion of the impact of automation on employment has focused on developed countries. Yet for developing countries a key concern is the prospect of'reshoring'or'nearshoring'- the opposite of offshoring - in which production shifts from developing back towards developed countries. These shifts would be enabled by automation in the labour-in[1]tensive sectors that have provided developing countries with strategic entry points into global markets and continue to employ large numbers of workers, often disproportionately women. The COVID-19 crisis has lent renewed urgency to the discussions on such restructuring of global supply chains. Relatively absent in these discussions is a sense of how automation plays out on the shop floor.