IFR on Labor Shortages and Service Robot Growth: What to Trust

What is IFR actually saying about labor?

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) puts labor shortages at the top of the list of forces pushing service robot adoption. Its position paper on service robots links that pressure to aging populations and declining birth rates, which shrink the available workforce while demand grows in healthcare, hospitality, logistics and public services.

IFR's argument is about tasks, not headcount. It says robots take over work that is repetitive, physically demanding, hazardous or time-consuming, rather than replacing people outright. That distinction matters when you read the trend against your own staffing plan.

The labor claim also rests on outside data. An IFR member blog cites a 2024 ManpowerGroup survey in which 75 percent of more than 40,000 employers reported trouble finding skilled workers. That figure is as IFR reported it, and it was not independently checked for this article.

Where did the 24% growth come from?

According to IFR's World Robotics 2026 Service Robots report, global shipments of professional service robots rose 24% to almost 250,000 units in 2025. Medical robots grew 19% and consumer service robots grew 37%, which shows that the growth was not confined to one buyer type.

Transportation and logistics was the largest single segment, with 117,500 units shipped in 2025, up 21% and holding a 47% share, as reported by Automate and DC Velocity. Hospitality ranked second, covering mobile guidance, information services and telepresence. Professional cleaning followed hospitality, with floor cleaning as its main application, according to Australian Manufacturing's summary of the report.

For an operator, the split is the useful part. Nearly half of the units went to moving things, so the growth picture is strongest in material flow, and cleaning is a clear but smaller share.

What the shipment figures cannot prove

The figures come from a sample of 238 suppliers. IFR does not project that sample to represent the entire industry, so the 250,000 units describe what the surveyed companies reported, not every service robot sold anywhere.

IFR also discourages comparing figures across World Robotics reports, because the sample composition changes from year to year. A 24% jump therefore should not be stacked against an older growth rate as if both came from the same ruler.

The prior-year base is also not fixed. IFR's 2025 release put 2024 professional service robot sales at almost 200,000 units, up 9%, while another summary of the same 2024 data gives more than 199,000. Pick one figure, name its source, and do not mix the two in one argument.

Shipments are not installations, and they are not working fleets. Analyst commentary on the report makes the related point that IFR counts robots, not vacancies, and that the report does not say how many jobs robots create. A shipment total cannot tell you whether a given site got its night shift covered.

Why IFR expects mixed fleets

IFR states that it is unlikely any single robot form factor will dominate every application. Mobile robots, stationary systems, drones, legged machines and humanoids each suit different jobs, and a site with several kinds of work will probably run several kinds of machine.

The humanoid numbers show why. IFR reports about 7,000 full-size humanoids above 140 cm sold for commercial and professional use in 2025. It cites safety standards, training and maintenance costs and business cases as limits, and it estimates roughly 17 transportation and logistics service robots for every full-size humanoid in that year.

Drones fall outside this count. IFR excludes remote-controlled devices from World Robotics scope, so an aerial inspection program will not appear in these shipment totals at all.

How operators are paying for them

IFR's 2025 release notes that more companies are choosing subscription or rental-style agreements over outright purchase, and that robot-as-a-service fleets grew 31% in 2024. In its survey, IFR also says that model is already the dominant one among U.S. professional service robot suppliers.

That shift changes the budget question. A monthly payment that replaces a capital purchase lets a facility team test a job before committing to the full asset, and it moves service obligations onto the supplier side of the contract.

Service Robot Co. works the same way. We lease robots only, on a 3-year lease with one fixed payment quoted after a site assessment. We are OEM-neutral, so the robot mix follows your floors and tasks, and our nationwide US engineer network handles deployment, training and service on every unit. For operators who want robot leasing for business without juggling several vendors, that single point of contact is the practical benefit.

What to check before you put the trend in a budget

A 24% headline is a good reason to look at automation, but it is a poor basis for a forecast. Start from your own unfilled shifts and the specific tasks behind them.

Before a number from this report goes into a plan, run through these checks:

• Confirm whether a figure counts shipments, installed units or revenue, since the three answer different questions.
• Note which prior-year base your source used, because the 2024 total appears as almost 200,000 in one place and more than 199,000 in another.
• Map the tasks a robot would take, and the shifts it would cover, before you cite any industry growth rate.
• Ask any vendor for its service coverage and response commitments in writing, not just in a brochure.