North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton fifth in nation for possible jobs lost to automation

The unemployment level in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton region dropped by more than 1,700 people over the past year. But job growth and falling unemployment may stall when the robots come.

A new report from the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis shows low-wage cities across the country are vulnerable to job automation as mobile robotics and machine learning continue to advance. The North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metropolitan area is fifth in the nation for this vulnerability and could lose 62.4 percent of jobs to automation, according to the report.

ISEA is a firm that focuses on geographic economic analysis. The report notes that non-routine jobs like truck driving, healthcare diagnostics and education could be affected. To create the job automation report, ISEA economists combined research by Oxford professors on the probability of automation for various occupations with employment data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area also landed in the top 10. Though most industries will be affected in some way by automation, the report said office and administrative support occupations, food preparation and serving related occupations, and sales and related occupations will be hit the hardest.

CareerSource Suncoast, a job search and placement agency, invests millions each year into helping local residents go back to school and assisting area companies with employee training. Anthony Gagliano, the agency’s business and economic development director, said there’s no reliable crystal ball to tell them what those investments will produce.

“We try to look down the road but we also realize we’ll be here to help people as the global economy evolves,” he said. “If anything we’ve seen some of it on the job growth side. Sometimes those efficiencies and productivity can create jobs in other areas.”

Greg Campbell, executive chef at downtown Bradenton restaurant Pier 22, isn’t worried about automation affecting his restaurant too much. Food service industry professionals in fast food or fast casual dining may have more reason to worry, he said.

“I would much rather have someone who is eloquent and who can suggestively sell,” Campbell said. “People go out to restaurants because they don’t want to make choices.”

As consumers move away from eating processed food and toward cooking with locally sourced or home-grown food, Campbell sees automation affecting the food processing industry less overall, as well.

“You can create whatever automation you want to, to make chicken nuggets, but what if people stop buying the chicken nuggets and go home and make their own?” Campbell said. “And nothing’s going to replace grandma’s meatloaf or your wife’s lasagna.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2017 at 5:10 PM with the headline "North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton fifth in nation for possible jobs lost to automation."