We need to talk about economic change – how fast it’s happening and what it looks like when it does. Everyone says technology means economic change is accelerating, and that when the robots arrive the result is current, largely older, workers losing their jobs.
That kind of change can happen, especially if driven by more than technology. The speed, and geographical concentration, of the decline in coalmining saw many lose their jobs and struggle to find new ones. But thinking all change looks like that can be a poor guide to today’s world. If anything, economic change is slowing down rather than speeding up. The rate at which some parts of the economy grow and others shrink has actually fallen to a nine-decade low – the turbulent 1980s are a long time ago.
