Before the recession, the total number of manufacturing employees in the USA peaked around June 2008.
Five years later, employees are down 13%, but the value of the goods they produced is only down 2%.
I think the next group of workers to get slaughtered will be interstate truckers who drive warehouse-to-warehouse.
I bet by 2020 we'll have robot expressway trucks, and if their loads are palletized, we'll have robot loaders and unloaders, too.
Anheuser-Busch already has robot loaders at their Columbus, OH brewery. I've never seen robot unloading.
The robotic truck is farther away, imo, because people will be afraid of the idea. The people in cars are already afraid of the trucks, I don't think a driverless truck would make them feel any better.