Las Vegas could see approximately 65% of its human jobs being lost to automation; this is according to new research that has been completed by the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis (ISEA).
Since Las Vegas is a tourist town, there are a lot of jobs related to the service industry such as taxi drivers, casino-related jobs, office clerks, cleaning staff, retail salespeople, and restaurant servers. These low-wage jobs have a high risk of automation because the tasks involved are very repetitive and could be done using robots.
There are estimates that the Las Vegas job cuts in the retail segment could see 36,000 out of 39,000 jobs being eliminated by 2035 due to automation. The number of jobs that could be impacted will depend on many factors such as rules and regulations of the state, affordability of the technology, and the adaptability by the end user.
Las Vegas Job Losses Have Been Seen Before
Las Vegas is a city that has always made adjustments in its services offered to ensure there is no compromise to the end customers. One example of a human being replaced by an automated machine is a change ATM. Previously, there would be a cashier walking around the casino floor handing out change for bills. Today, a customer would do everything through a machine to complete the same task.
Another example would be casino gaming machines. Previously, some games were only played by interacting with humans. Today, there are multiple digital games that serve the same purpose. Even though both of these examples would only impact a handful of jobs, the number becomes much larger when every casino on the strip is factored into the total number.
Automation Will Create an Income Gap
At first thought, automation sounds great because it makes things easier for the end consumer. However, automation will impact low-income earners much more than those who earn a high income. Individuals that have a high school degree as their highest level of education will have a 74% probability of losing their job to automation. Those individuals with a doctoral degree will only have a 13% chance of losing their job. Also, according to Professor Johannes Moenius from the University of Redlands, who worked on this study, Black and Hispanic workers have a higher probability of losing their job to automation than White employees.
Other Cities Impacted by Automation
In the study, Las Vegas was the only city that could lose more than 65% of its jobs to automation. According to the study, the No. 2 spot was held by El Paso, Texas, with the possibility of 63.9% of jobs being lost to automation. Third on the list was Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California, which could see 62.6% jobs lost to automation. El Paso and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario are ranked high on the list because they have a big service industry, which would fit into the low-wage category.
Conclusion: Las Vegas Job Losses
Automation is something to worry about since hundreds of thousands or millions of jobs could be lost within the entire United States. Even the government can’t control these dramatic changes through a tax cut plan or by handing out subsidiaries. In the future, there could be a big strain put on government budgets if many Americans are out of work.
“Robots could kill many Las Vegas jobs,” CNN, January 29, 2018.
“Future job automation to hit hardest in low wage metropolitan areas like Las Vegas, Orlando and Riverside-San Bernardino,” Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis, May 3, 2017.