Robots and Non-Participation in the United States: Where Have All the Workers Gone?
Giuseppe Di Giacomo, Benjamin Lerch · Industrial and Labor Relations Review · 25 Sep 2025
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Abstract
The rapid advances in automation technologies are disrupting labor markets at an unprecedented speed, contributing to the secular decline in US labor force participation and raising questions about where workers shift to when they leave the labor force. This article investigates the margins of adjustment of workers after being displaced by the introduction of industrial robots. Exploiting exogenous variation in the adoption of robots across local labor markets over time, the authors show that almost 8% of non-participants respond by enrolling in college, approximately 10% claim disability benefits, and nearly 40% retire early. The remaining non-participants rely on the income of their household members or live off their savings. These margins differ with the sociodemographic characteristics of individuals. Results also show that robots have worsened non-participants’ health, including self-reported health problems and hospitalizations related to severe mental disorders and substance abuse.
About this publication
Leading field journal. A leading journal in economics or a neighbouring field (on the Tinbergen Institute’s A list or near the top of the RePEc ranking), or a top-rated computer-science venue.
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- Published
- 2025 (13 months ago)
- Citations
- 4 (OpenAlex)
Citations in context
4 citations — 42nd percentile among the 33 indexed papers from 2025 in this collection. Citation counts favor older papers; this compares only same-year papers here, not the whole literature.
□ added to this collection in 2026.
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