Young workers face competition from robots

An economist predicts robots will replace workers in more American industries, from making shirts and harvesting fruit to masonry construction and driving limousines.

University of Maryland economist and professor Peter Morici says his local drugstore no longer has cashiers, using checkout machines instead. “By 2030, it will become technologically possible to replace 90 percent of the jobs as we know them by smart machines,” he writes.

He says U.S. high schools and colleges are not responding to this challenge, churning out graduates ill prepared for the technological revolution. Less than 40 percent of 12th graders are ready to read or learn math at the college level, and many fewer have skills to enter technically demanding positions without post-secondary training, he warns.