Abstract:
In a historical perspective that spans the 20th century, great changes have taken place in the UK labour market in the industrial and occupational structure of employment, and of course in real earnings. As Newell (2007) points out, the percentage share of employment in broadly defined production industries fell from 51.1 in 1901, to 45.2 in 1950, 42.9 in 1965, 29.9 in 1980 and 16 in 2001, compensated by a large rise in employment in service industries. The percentage share of civilian workers in manual occupations and agriculture fell from 55 in 1951 to 52 in 1966, 38 in 1977, and 31 in 2003, while that in managerial, professional and technical occupations rose from around 9 in 1951, to 13 in 1966, 27 in 1977 and 40 in 2003. Gallie (2000) notes the increasing percentage rate of labour force participation of married women (and hence of women as a group) from 10 in 1911, 22 in 1951, 29 in 1961, 42 in 1971 to 53 in 1991. The percentage of women working part-time rose from 11 in 1951 to 25 in 1961, 40 in 1975 to 46 in 1998. Gallie also notes the precipitate decline in trade union density from a post-war peak reached in the late 1970s to the present.
Citation:
Cristini, A., Geraci, A. & Muellbauer, J. (2018). 'Sifting through the ASHE: Job Polarisation and Earnings Inequality in the UK, 1975-2015'. INET Oxford Working Paper No. 2018-05.