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3 - TECHNOLOGY AND EMPLOYMENT

from PART 1 - STRUCTURAL CHANGE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

G. D. N. Worswick
Affiliation:
National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Many people believe that unemployment has risen to such high levels because technology, especially the revolution in information technology (IT), has destroyed jobs. It is recognised that there is a growing demand for highly trained men and women to construct and to operate computers, microprocessors and manufacturing processes based upon them. But the rising demand for electronic engineers, programmers and the like is far outweighed by the fall in demand for men and women – less skilled workers – whose tasks can now be performed by computer-controlled machinery. In the manufacture of cars, there may still be an assembly line, but there are few men and women adding and fixing component parts: the bulk of the tasks are performed by robots.

Confronted with such fears, we might first refer to history, and observe that technical change which ‘saves labour’ is neither new nor harmful. Without going as far back as the discovery of fire and the invention of the wheel, we might restrict ourselves to the changes of the past two hundred years since the industrial revolution began in Britain. In this short span of time, succeeding generations have seen remarkable changes in agriculture, in industry and in services, which have brought to the majority of people in the developed world standards of life which, before the eighteenth century, were the lot of only a small minority.

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Unemployment: A Problem of Policy
Analysis of British Experience and Prospects
, pp. 23 - 32
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1991

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  • TECHNOLOGY AND EMPLOYMENT
  • G. D. N. Worswick, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London
  • Book: Unemployment: A Problem of Policy
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511559778.004
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  • TECHNOLOGY AND EMPLOYMENT
  • G. D. N. Worswick, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London
  • Book: Unemployment: A Problem of Policy
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511559778.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • TECHNOLOGY AND EMPLOYMENT
  • G. D. N. Worswick, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London
  • Book: Unemployment: A Problem of Policy
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511559778.004
Available formats
×