Southern Communities and Workers Benefit When Rural Factories Automate

Many manufacturers need to automate and computerize their operations to compete in both domestic and foreign markets. Rural southern manufacturers that have automated have realized benefits to their bottom lines, generally without reducing their workforce. Most, in fact, expanded. Workers are, however, often asked to take on different tasks than with a manual operation, and many of those tasks require different skills. Based on a survey of 51 rural plants in 12 Southern States.