Technology Has Helped Unemployment

A study found that technology has created more jobs in the last 144 years.

16:35 20 August 2015

A study conducted by financial services Deloitte has found that technology has created more jobs in the past century. The study’s authors, Ian Stewart, Debapratim De, and Alex Cole, looked into census data for England and Wales dating back to 1871. They found that despite fears that robots will eventually going to take all the jobs, technology simply shifted work into other areas.

 

This shift has resulted in rising wages and more leisure time allowing people to spend more money on grooming when compared during the Victorian period. As a result, there is now one hairdresser for every 287 people in England and Wales. It used to be one for every 1,793 in 1871. The same is true for pubs, which benefited from employees having more time in their hands as they rely on machines instead of doing manual labour.

 

However, innovations in the home and work resulted in a huge drop in hard, dull, and dangerous profession. For example, people who make a living from washing clothes found themselves unemployed due to the widespread use of washing machines. 

 

Aside from rising wages and more leisure time for employees, technology also pulled down the pricess of goods as automation and technological advances means minimal cost for manufacturing things like cars, TVs, and kitchen appliances.