Are robots the answer to the shortage of elder care workers?

Older Americans are living longer than before on average. That means there is more demand for long-term care services. A Wells Fargo report from earlier this year, for example, estimated that 1.7 million more people will need some form of elder care 10 years from now. But the elder care industry is already having trouble hiring and keeping enough workers. Is this yet another industry that might solve some of its problems with the use of automation?

A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research on robots in Japanese nursing homes, which face similar challenges, offers some intriguing insights. Marketplace’s senior economics contributor Chris Farrell in St. Paul, Minnesota, has been taking a closer look. He spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host Sabri Ben-Achour. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Sabri Ben-Achour: What kinds of things do these robots do? I mean, are these robots actually helping people out of bed and helping them walk down the hall? What do they do?

Chris Farrell: Yeah, some of them are helping people walk down the hall. Some of it is they’ll interact with people, perhaps sing songs and, yes, and helping people out of bed.

Ben-Achour: So what kind of conclusions did these economists draw from looking at the data of how these robots worked out?

Farrell: It’s essentially a suggestive story about the positive impact of automation at work. And they found that robots are largely complementary to the elder care job done by care workers and nursing staff. Now, robots took over some tasks, but automation allowed workers to spend more time and effort on the kind of caregiving tasks that benefit from human touch and empathy. And the researchers found that productivity, revenue, quality and quantity of care improved after nursing homes adopted robots. Overall employment went up, although there was a slight decline in full-time care workers. Quit rates went down.

Ben-Achour: I understand that you have actually seen these kinds of robots in action here in the U.S.

Farrell: That’s right. And the memorable one is when I visited Mom in 2019 at Knollwood Military Retirement Community in Washington, D.C. And she introduced me to Stevie II, a very friendly looking robot created at Trinity College Dublin. Stevie is what they call a “socially assistive” robot with artificial intelligence features. And the robot was nearly 5 feet tall, and it sang a very nice version of “Danny Boy.”

Ben-Achour: Oh, my gosh. What did your mom think of that robot?

Farrell: I was shocked. She was impressed by the robot, although she did get annoyed at herself for apologizing to Stevie when she got in Stevie’s way. But my mom wasn’t a fan of new technology — I mean, believe me. But she really said that, in the community, Stevie showed genuine promise at supplementing workers at their jobs and interacting with community residents.

Ben-Achour: How far, based on this, do you think robots could go in the service sector?

Farrell: I think they’re going to go really far. I mean, robots, they are spreading already into the service sector, even businesses like health care and elder care, retail and hospitality and logistics, just to name a few. And the International Federation of Robotics says interest in professional service robots is largely driven by staff shortages and lack of applicants. One implication of this study is that the fear of job loss with robots may be exaggerated, but more important, the opportunity for greater job satisfaction and customer experience with robots, I think it’s tantalizing.