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A series of Statistics Canada studies released Monday shows that Canadian firms that invested in and adopted robots from 1996 to 2017 employed more workers relative to industry averages. Robot-friendly firms added more high-skilled and low-skilled jobs, while middle-skilled jobs—those requiring vocational or trades qualifications—were more likely to decline with robot adoption. 

The findings challenge assumptions that robots will replace human staff in the workplaces that adopt them and that reducing staffing costs is a key motivation for those firms. On Monday, for example, Walmart said it has abandoned plans to use robots to keep track of inventory in its aisles, after finding human workers can do the job just as well. 

Here are the key numbers from the Statistics Canada reports: 

15%: Firms that incorporated robots had 15 per cent more staff than industry peers that didn’t. At the same time, robot adoption was correlated with increased turnover at the management level. One explanation is that robots improve the consistency of certain tasks, which “may mean firms need fewer managers to monitor workers to ensure quality.” 

3,085: The number of individual businesses in Canada that purchased robots during the study period. 

0.8%: The productivity boost tied to robot adoption, after accounting for factors like industry, geography and “the business cycle.” One study found that firms were primarily motivated to use robots to improve product and service quality, and not to reduce labour costs. 

$1.4 billion: The total value of Canada’s robot stock in 2017, up from $1.2 billion in 2008 and $36.8 million in 1996. 

$365.4 million: The value of robots in Canada’s automotive sector in 2017, down from a peak of $560.1 million in 2008. Since then, industries including agriculture, mining, construction and health have increasingly invested in automation.