involved project member(s)

Bas van Leeuwen

abstract

Britain’s labour force industrialised early. The industrial and service sectors already accounted for 40% of the labour force in 1381, and a substantial further shift of labour out of agriculture occurred between 1522 and 1700. From the early seventeenth century rising agricultural labour productivity underpinned steadily increasing employment in industry and services, so that by 1759 agriculture’s share of the labour force had shrunk to 37% and industry’s grown to 34%. Thereafter, industry’s output acceleration during the Industrial Revolution owed more to gains in labour productivity consequent upon mechanisation than the expansion of employment.

keywords

Labour force; Sectoral distribution; Labour productivity; Britain

link to paper page of the journal website

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498312000496

citation format