The technology created more jobs than it destroyed between 1871 and 2011

The production lines of some factories are now completely empty, without human workers. His place is taken giant robotic arms and other machines that have been designed and planned for a single task. The same is true in other sectors. Does that mean that technology destroys jobs hitherto occupied people? Yes, some, but still change creates many more jobs.

That’s what Deloitte said in a recent study published in The Guardian, for which analyzed census data for England and Wales to see how the labor market has evolved since 1871. If more machines, there will be more programmers and engineers, true? Yes, but they have also detected an increase in jobs in other sectors such as the creative, entertainment or.

The works of more physical (miners, farmers, etc.) have been the most fallen in that time: to occupy 23.7% of the workforce in 1871 to fall to 8.3% in 2011. Instead, the professions of “care” (understood as health, education and others) have gone from 1.1% to 12.2%. According to the report, the technology replaces the work of brute force but also helps raise productivity and employment in other sectors such as health, education and other professional services.

The costs cheaper machines, the citizen spends less than before and therefore raises its buying power: have extra money to spend on other things like hair salons and bars, according to the report

In addition, as the machines reduce the costs, the citizen ultimately have more money to spend on other things that do not correspond to everyday needs. The study mentions several concrete examples have lost jobs in agriculture, in laundries, in secretarial work, in typists, in manufacturing … But besides technical and more professional, more teachers, more professional health, more accountants, more waiters and hairdressers. Yes, hairdressers.

What they say is part of sense, but there are other considerations that seem to have taken into account by focusing solely on England and Wales. Such as the fact that now many companies are not making use of machines to cover their positions, but workers from developing countries who work more, with less labor controls and trace amounts of money.

And the future? The series ‘Real Humans’ posed an interesting conflict as worrisome as between humans and machines, what people would do if robots do almost any job better than them? What would be devoted? The study authors do not believe that we will experience this problem the near future: “The machines will take care of the most repetitive and laborious tasks, but do not seem to be closer to eliminate the need for human labor in the last 150 years.”