The Navy's use of robotics instead of touch labor in the service's shipbuilding will boost the number of jobs at the nation's more than 600 shipyards, a Navy official told the Surface Navy Association conference on Tuesday. Traditional economic theory holds that the productivity increases afforded by technology often replace jobs, though not always one for one. Asked whether technology will lead to a fall in jobs at the shipyards, Matt Evans, the deputy program manager for the Maritime Industrial…