Robots take over pizza joint! Fast food jobs due to be phased out

Workers will need to adapt to the new economy.

A pizza startup in Silicon Valley is about to change the way you get your pizza, and possibly many of your other meals as well. Zume pizza is using robots to make your pizza and has plans to fully automate the process. Robots are on their way into restaurants across America.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - A pizza startup in Silicon Valley, California is using robots instead of people to make your pizza. The Zume pizzeria in Mountain View is using high tech equipment to make pizzas to order. So far, the machines are aided by humans but soon the human helpers will be obsolete as improvements are made.

The pizzeria also has a plan to use a delivery truck that finishes cooking the pizza while it's en route to your house, ensuring a hotter, fresher pie.

Julia Collins, Zume's CEO said of the company's goal, "We automate those repetitive tasks, so that we can spend more money on higher quality ingredients."

Zume may be the first food establishment that is using robots as part of its model, but it is not the going to be the only one for long.

Domino's Pizza has already announced plans to employ robots in their stores to speed the pizza making process. The company is also experimenting with drone delivery.

Labor costs are perhaps the greatest expense in the food industry and those costs drive prices up. The jobs themselves are often tedious, repetitive and physically demanding. Fixing this would be financially worthwhile and would spur workers to develop new skills.

It is common for people to bemoan the loss of these low-wage jobs, but their elimination is actually a boon for the entry-level labor market. The elimination of mind-numbing work means entry level workers will be compelled to seek more fulfilling jobs, usually with better pay and conditions.

Those same workers may need to acquire some skills, but as education and the job market adapts, this will not be very difficult. The short term shocks of unemployment will be offset by better value in the market, better returns in the food industry, and better jobs for those who seek to acquire the new skills necessary to flourish in the new, more automated economy.

Eventually, workers will be educated for these new jobs before they graduate from secondary education, just as they are now for the jobs that are becoming obsolete.

The future is not one of mass unemployment, but one of change and improvement.

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