When industrial robots are adopted by firms in a local labor market, some workers are displaced and become unemployed. Other workers that are not directly affected by automation may however fear that these new technologies might replace their working tasks in the future. This fear of a possible future replacement is important because it negatively affects workers’ job satisfaction at present. This paper studies the extent to which automation affects workers’ job satisfaction, and whether this effect differs for high- versus low-skilled workers. The empirical analysis uses microdata for several thousand workers in Norway from the Working Life Barometer survey for the period 2016–2019, combined with information on the introduction of industrial robots in Norway from the International Federation of Robotics. Our identification strategy exploits variation in the pace of introduction of industrial robots in Norwegian regions and industries since 2007 to instrument workers’ fear of replacement. The results indicate that automation in industrial firms in recent years have induced 40% of the workers that are currently in employment to fear that their work might be replaced by a smart machine in the future. Such fear of future replacement does negatively affect workers’ job satisfaction at present. This negative effect is driven by low-skilled workers, which are those carrying out routine-based tasks, and who are therefore more exposed to the risks of automation.

当公司在当地劳动力市场上采用工业机器人时，一些工人将流离失所并失业。但是，其他不受自动化直接影响的工人可能会担心这些新技术将来会取代他们的工作任务。担心将来可能会被替换很重要，因为这会对当前工人的工作满意度产生负面影响。本文研究了自动化在多大程度上影响工人的工作满意度，以及这种影响对于高技能和低技能工人是否有所不同。实证分析使用了挪威工作生活晴雨表中数千名工人的微观数据进行了2016-2019年期间的调查，并结合了国际机器人联合会在挪威引进的工业机器人的信息。我们的识别策略利用自2007年以来在挪威地区和行业中引入工业机器人的速度变化，以消除工人对替换的恐惧。结果表明，近年来工业公司的自动化导致40％的目前就业的工人担心他们的工作将来会被智能机器取代。对未来更换的恐惧确实对工人目前的工作满意度产生了负面影响。这种负面影响是由低技能工人（他们是执行常规任务的工人）驱动的，因此他们更容易遭受自动化风险。