Counties with jobs at risk from automation voted at higher rates for Trump than Biden
Counties with projected job growth, higher income levels and higher education levels voted for Biden
Counties with jobs at risk of being lost to automation voted more for President Trump than President-elect Joe Biden, according to a Wednesday analysis from Indeed chief economist Jed Kolko.
In counties with fewer "routine" jobs, or jobs are at risk from automation, support for Trump decreased in 2020 compared to 2016, wrote for The New York Times, citing U.S. Census data.
"Places with brighter future economic prospects swung toward Biden. Higher college attainment, higher median household income, faster-projected job growth, and fewer routine jobs were all correlated with a bigger Democratic margin in 2020 than 2016," Kolko wrote in a Thursday tweet.
He continued: "Places with better economic outcomes swung toward Biden in 2020. Faster job growth and lower unemployment pre-pandemic -- as well as pandemic-era milder job losses and smaller unemployment increases -- went hand-in-hand with bigger Democratic margins."
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Gaps in education, projected long-term job growth and household income grew wider between red and blue voters in 2020, with more educated households earning higher incomes in counties with positive job growth expectations voting for Biden, Kolko noted in the article.
FILE - In this June 24, 2019, file photo machines work on a Ford vehicle assembly line at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant in Chicago. (AP Photo/Amr Alfiky, File) (AP)
The phenomenon is what some pundits and commentators have called a "realignment," suggesting shifting political viewpoints within the Democratic and Republican parties and a move away from traditional blue and red ideologies.
Democratic presidential nominee Andrew Yang warned of the effects of automation on routine jobs in America and campaigned in part protecting American workers from being replaced by machines. Yang also focused his concerns on battleground states that have lost millions of jobs to automation in recent years including, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
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"I think it would be insane to sit back and watch this automation wave overtake our communities and our economy," Yang told Fox News' Tucker Carlson in March. “We need to evolve. We need to actually start pushing the way we think of economic progress to include how our families are doing, how our children are doing, and things that would actually matter to the American people."