Technology

Charting the Automation Potential of U.S. Jobs

Published

7 years ago

March 30, 2016

Jeff Desjardins

Charting the Automation Potential of U.S. Jobs

In last week’s Chart of the Week, we noted that 1.3 million industrial robots would be installed between 2015 and 2018, and this would more than double the stock of active robots around the world.

While many of those robots will be used in the automotive and electronics sectors, there are many other roles that robots will be filling in the future. Surprisingly, according to global consultant McKinsey & Co, not all of these jobs are low-skill, low-wage jobs, either.

Mckinsey ran a comprehensive study of nearly 800 different jobs in the United States, ranging from CEOs to fast food workers. Between these roles, they found 2,000 individual work activities, and assessed them against 18 different capabilities that could potentially be automated. In their analysis, they found that 45% of work activities representing $2 trillion in wages can already by automated based on proven technology that currently exists. A further 13% of work activities in the U.S. economy could be automated if the technologies used to understand and process human language were brought up to the median human level of competence.

Who’s in, Who’s Out?

The interactive visualization above charts specific careers on their automation potential (out of 100%) along with the hourly average wage of the job.

What is most interesting about the analysis is that automation potential doesn’t correlate with low-skill, low-wage jobs as much as one may think. While it’s true that the three million fast food workers across the country have an automation potential of 74%, and that heavy truck driving activities can be 69% automated, there are also great counter-examples: for example, only 7% of manual labor and 22% of janitorial activities could be automated.

Likewise, high-paying jobs are not necessarily robot-proof.

Doctors (23%), nurses (29%), and even CEOs (25%) all have significant amounts of their jobs that can be automated with current technology. Almost half (47%) of what pharmacists do can be done by a robo-pharmacist, and 72% of commercial pilot activities can be done through computers.

Not interested in having a robot fill your shoes? Mckinsey notes at the end of their analysis that both creativity and sensing emotion are extremely difficult to automate. Focus on building skills and competencies in these categories, and you’ll be just fine (for now, at least).

Related Topics:robots jobs automation mckinsey

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Ranked: America’s Largest Semiconductor Companies

This graphic visualizes the market capitalizations of America’s 15 largest semiconductor companies.

Published

4 days ago

June 5, 2023

Marcus Lu

Ranking America’s Largest Semiconductor Companies

As our world moves further into an era of widespread digitization, few industries can be considered as important as semiconductors.

These components are found in almost everything we use on a daily basis, and the ability to produce them domestically has become a topic of national security. For example, in 2022 the Biden administration announced the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to strengthen America’s position in everything from clean energy to artificial intelligence.

With this in mind, we’ve ranked the top 15 U.S. semiconductor companies by their market capitalizations.

Data and Highlights

The data we used to create this infographic is listed in the table below. Year-to-date (YTD) returns were included for additional context. Both metrics are as of May 30, 2023.

Rank	Company	Ticker	Market Cap (USD billions)	YTD Return
1	Nvidia	NVDA	$992	180.2%
2	Broadcom	AVGO	$335	45.1%
3	AMD	AMD	$202	95.7%
4	Texas Instruments	TXN	$160	8.2%
5	Qualcomm	QCOM	$129	8.2%
6	Intel	INTC	$125	12.2%
7	Applied Materials	AMAT	$115	41.2%
8	Analog Devices	ADI	$89	9.2%
9	Lam Research	LRCX	$85	52.1%
10	Micron Technology	MU	$78	42.3%
11	Snyopsys	SNPS	$71	45.4%
12	KLA	KLAC	$63	21.8%
13	Marvell Technology Group	MRVL	$54	76.2%
14	Microchip Technology	MCHP	$42	11.2%
15	ON Semiconductor	ON	$36	36.3%

At the top is Nvidia, which became America’s newest $1 trillion company on Tuesday, May 30th. Shares pulled back slightly over the day and Nvidia closed at $992 billion. Over the past decade, Nvidia has transformed from a gaming-focused graphics card producer to a global leader in AI and data center chips.

In third and sixth place are two of America’s most well known chipmakers, AMD and Intel. These longtime rivals are moving in opposite trajectories, with AMD shares climbing 770% over the past five years, and Intel shares falling 47%. One reason for this is the data center segment, in which AMD appears to be stealing market share from Intel.

Further down the list we see Applied Materials in seventh, and Lam Research in ninth. Both firms specialize in semiconductor manufacturing equipment and thus play an important role in the industry’s supply chain.

Trade War Impacts

As tensions between the U.S. and China escalate, chipmakers are becoming increasingly entangled in geopolitical conflict.

In October 2022, the Biden administration introduced new export controls aimed at blocking China’s access to semiconductors produced with U.S. equipment. This impacted several companies in our top 15 list, including Lam Research and Applied Materials.

Shortly after the export controls were announced, Lam Research said it expected to lose upwards of $2.5 billion in annual revenues.

We lost some very profitable customers in the China region, and that’s going to persist, obviously.
– Doug Bettinger, CFO, Lam Research

In response, China announced in May 2023 that it would no longer allow America’s largest memory chipmaker, Micron, to sell its products to “critical national infrastructure operators”.

This is not the first time Micron has been involved in a controversy with China. In 2018, the firm alleged that Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, a Chinese state-owned company, had solicited a Micron employee to steal specifications for memory chips. The U.S. Department of Commerce imposed export restrictions on Fujian Jinhua as a result.

Chipmakers on both sides of the Pacific will be closely watching as competition between these two countries heats up.