The Industrial Age and Employment

The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people’s work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of the changes in work patterns which it brought about may have to be reversed. This seems a daunting (大胆的) thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows, has not meant economic .
Employment became widespread when the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by depriving (剥夺) them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and removed work from people’s homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people commuted (乘车往返) longer distances to their places of employment until, ually, many people’s work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived.
Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. In pre-industrial times, men and women had shared the productive work of the household and village community. Now it became customary (惯例的) for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and family to his wife. Tax and benefit regulations still assume this norm today, and restrict more flexible sharing of work roles between the es.
It was not only women whose work status suffered. As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old people were excluded-a problem now, as more agers become frustrated at school and more retired people want to live active lives.
All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some efforts and resources away from the utopian (乌托邦的) goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without full-time jobs.
The Industrial Age and EmploymentThe established work patterns may be changed with the closing of the industrial age.