Robots are a popular theme in science fiction. Usually they start off doing all the menial jobs that humans don’t want to do anymore, like street sweeping, housework and baby sitting. But then they start to think for themselves and it all goes horribly pear shaped.

Currently, we live in the infancy of this vision. We don’t necessarily have robots in our homes but we do have a lot of machines in the work place. And rather than having them take on tasks that we no longer want to do, people are starting to think that increased mechanisation is decreasing valid human employment opportunities.

This is not good news in fragile global economies where every job, no matter how menial, is an important job.

Machines are a godsend for manufacturers that need to lower overhead costs and increase production. Machines can churn out products more quickly and efficiently than a team of humans and they do it without breaks, sick leave or salary demands. Software systems can oversee production processes and, by and large, the people who are employed are also more productive as a result of all the increased sophistication of the technology all around them.

If you look at an admittedly rosy bigger picture, more technology and mechanisation increases productivity and profits, which can increase business prospects, which can lead to greater employment.

In the short-term, however, the knee-jerk reaction, especially from unions, is that sophisticated computers and machines are depriving the man and woman on the street of their ability to put food on their families’ tables.

Even President Obama has said that the advances in technology have allowed ‘businesses to do more with less’; the less in this case referring to manpower. Machines may increase productivity and create more jobs but the question of the moment is whether they create more jobs than they take away.

Business Week bandies about a few statistics on employment and machines in the work place. The article cites economists who maintain that mechanisation has little effect on overall employment. As an example, technology on US farms has driven human agricultural employment down by 39% since 1900. But, according to the economists, all those people work in other sectors.

The problem is that, these days, many of these other sectors are also mechanised and in the interests of survival are cutting back on non-essential staff.

There are those, some would call them the voices of reason while others would call them fools or optimists, who say technology is not responsible for rising unemployment, but that people, who make their own financial messes and are ultimately in charge of their own destinies, are responsible. The people who have the wherewithal to keep their wits and see the potential in technology will fill employment niches that we don’t know exist yet.

However, until the economic situation settles and people feel comfortable spending money again, which will lead to greater demand in all fields of production, employment is likely to remain a contentious issue and that means machines, while not yet self-fulfilling beings, are still a threat.

Sandy writes on behalf of Job Board Gurus, a specialist job board software development company.