The penetration of robotic technology, task content routinisation and job satisfaction: Evidence from China

Abstract

Faced with a surge in labour costs, companies are strongly incentivised by local governments’ aggressive promotion to embrace robotic technology, triggering intense media debates. This, in turn, inevitably shapes workers’ attitudes towards their current jobs and brings uncertainty about their future workplace. This study investigates the connection between robotisation, routinisation and job satisfaction in China’s labour market. The results show that there is an observed positive relationship between an individual’s job satisfaction and exposure to robots in the local labour market, which may be related to the overwhelming benefits of these new technologies about certain work dimensions. However, fear of automation is not groundless. Our findings show that job satisfaction decreased with an increase in the routinisation of task content, particularly in areas that are increasingly exposed to robot adoption. This supports the routine-biased technological change hypothesis, which connects technology-induced unemployment with job routinisation. JEL Classification: J28, O33