Companies will spend an estimated $5 billion over the next three years installing inventory-tracking technology, but the financial benefits they will reap in the long term from improved supply-chain efficiency will be at the expense of some 4 million jobs in the U.S. alone.

Although the move from barcode to RFID will take some time, the 4 million people who currently carry around barcode scanning devices will see their function change then be eliminated.

As often, technology shift means job losses, but (few) others will be created within the new supply chains, however, “the idea is to have these operations take place without a lot of human intervention,” Yankee analyst Adam Zawel.

From EETimes, via RFID Gazette.