E-commerce sales are growing rapidly. Though purchases made online are still dwarfed by the volume of in-store purchases, don't underestimate the impact our online-shopping habits are having on the logistics industry. Processing centres and warehouses that fulfill online orders are popping up at a rapid rate all across Canada. Last year, Amazon announced new fulfillment centres in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary, to name a few well-publicized examples. Though new fulfillment centres and the jobs that accompany them are rightly being hailed as good news for local economies, there's also the emerging threat of automation to consider. Will those jobs be here to stay? The logistics industry has long been at the epicentre of worries about automation taking over jobs. However, at the present time, automated machines have not reached a point where they're capable of replicating human movement and speed. So for now, logistics workers remain integral to the Canadian economy.