The claim
“Robots are taking millions of jobs.”
Oxford Economics forecast that up to 20 million factory jobs worldwide could be lost to robots by 2030. Oxford Economics, 26 June 2019
Peer-reviewed research finds factory robots did replace US workers, but the 'millions of jobs' figures come from forecasts, not measured job losses.
01The evidence
Independent
A study by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo in the Journal of Political Economy found each extra factory robot in the US replaced about 3.3 workers nationally.
Independent
The study found that from 1990 to 2007, one more robot per 1,000 workers cut the share of Americans in work by about 0.2 percent.
Independent
More robots also lowered wages by about 0.4 percent over the same period.
Independent
Oxford Economics' figure of up to 20 million lost factory jobs is a forecast for 2030, not a count of jobs already lost.
Independent
The International Federation of Robotics counted a record 5 million industrial robots working in factories worldwide in 2025.
Independent
Factories worldwide installed more than 600,000 new industrial robots in 2025.
What we don't know. There is no official count of jobs lost to robots worldwide. The main US study covers factory robots from 1990 to 2007, before today's AI-driven robots.