* Last updated by: Romans on 3/17/2013 @ 6:20 AM *

Robotics are a huge part of the current manufacturing resurgence in the U.S. and probably the only thing that allows our factories to compete with $4-a-day thrid-world labor. Ain't doing crap to lower unemployment, though.

In most recent past recessions, it was always single-family home construction that pulled us up by the bootstraps. this time, that sector was a big part of the CAUSE of the recession and hasn't gained the traction necessary to have a big effect yet.

One bright note, homebuilders in Florida and Texas are currently running BELOW demand capacity because many of their workers ran back across the border when the downturn hit and are having difficulties getting back in. This forces the companies to hire actual citizens and pay them a bit more.

* Last updated by: Danno on 3/17/2013 @ 1:35 PM *

Part of the reason a couple of the car companies in the USA fell on near-bankruptcy times is despite the extensive automation and advanced manufacturing facilities they put in place, the unions continued to force them to keep excessive numbers of workers in place doing next to nothing, at obscene wages for doing nothing.

It is not computers and assembly lines that killed us manufacturing, it is unions and the federal government.

Let's not forget a whole wack of technical trades and entry level knowledge work got outsourced into the global market. China is now a manufacturing Lion and with rising oil and transportaion cost doing it domestically and with robotics is the next cost savings loop. This generation of NINJAS (no investments, no jobs or assets) are going to need to diversify and specialize in order to find work in the technical fields.