The author makes the point that progress is slow, though inexorable, and one can discern an upward drift of unemployment, even in good times. After analysing the various views concerning this phenomenon, the author points to two major problems, viz. the transitional one of the redundant heavy manual worker and the long-term one of employment for the unskilled. He then considers these problems from the point of view of automation and robotics with particular reference to the reaction of the human society to the qualitative changes in the manufacturing industries.