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As self-employed workers are increasingly concerned about labor costs, they are increasingly being replaced by robots rather than humans.

As the number of restaurants and cafes using robots increases in the sense that labor costs can be reduced, the places where people can work are gradually disappearing.



This is reporter Jae Hee-won's report.



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The robot moves the chicken with the dough into the oil pot.



Then, shake the frying basket so that the batter does not clump.



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In this way, turn 6 frying pans and fry up to 50 chickens in an hour.



The robot rent is 1.1 million won per month.



It's a lot of money, but the labor cost rises a lot, and people are reluctant to stand in front of hot oil, so they chose a robot as an alternative.



[Kim Haram/Chicken robot company employee: You don't have to stand in front of the fryer yourself.

There is no need to inhale harmful vapors, and only kneading and packaging work is required, so it can be said to be suitable for a single-person store.]



This snack shop also makes tteokbokki by robots.



Put rice cakes, seasonings, and water into a bowl that looks like a rice cooker, and the robot turns the barrel to cook.



Transfer it to a bowl and wash it yourself.



Usually a 100m2 store should have at least 2-3 employees, but this store only has one employee.

[Won Sang-jin/Staff of snack robot



company: If you prepare subdivided ingredients, put them in and press a few buttons, and the cooking is done.



Stars are also increasing.



When you order and pay, the robot makes coffee right away, and it is possible to operate unattended 24 hours a day.



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The global food tech market, where robots fill kitchens, is expected to grow to 400 trillion won next year.



This is because if they taste similar, there are more benefits in terms of cost and management than using people.



[Kim Jong-jin / Senior Research Fellow, Korea Labor and Social Research Institute: Automation will continue to accelerate.

And jobs in that area will suffer quite a bit, and the mismatch between supply and demand cannot be solved by simply raising wages.

The fact that an hourly wage is 10,000 won to 15,000 won doesn't mean they are drawn to this.]



In Korea, there are 10 million food-related jobs, and this change can be as shocking as job loss.



The government needs to check the situation and quickly come up with countermeasures such as vocational retraining.



(Video coverage: Jeong Seong-hwa, video editing: Lee So-young, VJ: Park Hyeon-woo)