Obama and Jobs Council will visit here
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President Barack Obama's Jobs Council comes calling this morning on a Findlay company whose labor-saving technology makes companies more competitive.
Seegrid's robotic forklifts get consumer goods, industrial parts and other products in and out of warehouses more quickly, boosting the productivity of companies that use them. Company spokesman David A. Noble said that while the automated forklifts allow some customers to reduce warehouse jobs, they also allow many of them to free up workers for more productive tasks.
"This is actually making us more competitive in the United States, which keeps jobs here in the United States," Mr. Noble said.
Seegrid's products demonstrate that while automation may lead to short-term job losses, in the long run it can save and create jobs by helping companies be more competitive.
"The old economic rule of thumb is that productivity is the enemy of the worker in the short term and friend of the worker in the long term," said Michael Montgomery, senior economist with IHS Global Insight, a consulting firm.
Technology-based jobs are more attractive because they pay higher wages and make U.S. companies more competitive, said Pamela J. Gordon, president of Technology Forecasters, an Alameda, Calif., firm that advises companies on manufacturing strategy.
"Robotics are always to be embraced because they increase productivity and create jobs that are more attractive," Ms. Gordon said.
The Jobs Council's meeting coincides with President Barack Obama's visit to Pittsburgh. The president will not be at the Seegrid meeting, which will be led by General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of the White House Jobs Council. Two other executives on the 27-member panel, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini and Eastman Kodak Chairman Antonio Perez, as well as U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills are scheduled to attend the meeting.
First Published October 11, 2011 12:00 am
