Hiring Demand for Robotics Professionals Nearly Doubled in January

WANTED Analytics found that corporate recruiting and staffing firms posted 2,100 jobs for robotics professionals in January. The growth was nearly 44 percent over ads posted in January 2011, with the largest growing areas in the engineering and technology fields. Engineering was up 51 percent from last year, and technology was up 66 percent from last year’s levels.

The most common job titles for professionals with robotics skills included Maintenance Technician, Manufacturing Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Mechanical Engineer and Controls Engineer. Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles had the largest volume of advertisements for robotics professionals.

The best places to recruit robotics workers were Tulsa, Oklahoma, Orlando, Florida, and Huntsville, Alabama. WANTED estimated that in these areas, jobs would be filled at a faster pace than anywhere else in the country. Employers in Detroit had the most difficult time attracting talent because the pool of workers in the area lacks a supply of robotics-skilled workers to fill demand.

American workers have a mixed relationship with robots, mostly because many workers fear that robots will take over manufacturing jobs. However, robotics, according to IBM (News - Alert) estimates, will grow into a $30 billion industry by 2016. The military and security industries are the primary growth drivers, followed by traditional uses for robotics in manufacturing, medicine, planetary exploration and handling of hazardous materials.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, the recent surge in robotics occurred as a result of pent-up demand during the recession, during which companies did not replace older robots or invest in robotics research and development.

However, a large number of filed patents as well as the growth of venture capitalist interest in robotics lead analysts to predict explosive growth in the industry. Analysts predict that Europe and Asia will be major growth markets for robotics in the coming years.

Research firm Metra Martech predicts that robotics will add one million jobs over the next five years, and other experts concur with that assessment. “A wide array of skills is necessary to develop these robotics systems,” said Jon Bornstein, manager of the Army Research Laboratory's Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance. “Hardware, software, actuation, mobility in complex environments, mechanical engineering, power, control...all of those will be wrapped up in robotics.”