Amazon workers find new roles as robots take over the heavy lifting

Florence, New Jersey

NISSA Scott started working at the cavernous Amazon warehouse in southern New Jersey late last year, stacking plastic bins the size of small ottomans. It was not, she said, the most stimulating activity. And lifting the bins, which often weigh more than 11 kg each, was also tiring over 10-hour shifts.

Now Ms Scott, 21, watches her replacement - a giant, bright yellow mechanical arm - do the stacking. Her new job at Amazon is to babysit several robots at a time, troubleshooting them when necessary and making sure that they have bins to load. On a recent afternoon, a claw at end of the arm grabbed a bin off a conveyor belt and stacked it on another bin, forming neat columns on wooden pallets surrounding the robot. It was the first time that Amazon had shown the arm, the latest generation of robots in use at its warehouses, to a reporter.