That is a clearly predictable outcome of overzealous regulators and labor unions. When overhead, risk, and direct cost are raised a business will rationally shift more resources into automation and electronics. The increase in price of unskilled labor means that the supply and demand curves don't actualize and what you get is less consumption of the resource, actualized through higher unemployment rates.

This also means that highly skilled people become more in demand because they are the ones that are capable of designing and implementing these systems.

Unleashed unskilled labor in a low cost country such as China doesn't help the plight of the unskilled labor force in America/Canada either. Especially with the artificially low Chinese currency.