More Workless or More Work Less

Abstract

In the period of four years during which this study continued, views about the problem of jobs in Britain changed significantly. Important shifts took place in ideas about what sort of work people might expect to do in the future, how they will do it and even where that work might be done. We have our own conclusions to offer about the possible mix of jobs that may be achieved, which flow from our presumptions about demand and technological developments. But the main preoccupation is not so much about what sort of jobs Britons may have; people’s first worry is whether they will have one at all.

‘The greatest evil of unemployment is not physical but moral, not the want which it may bring but the hatred and fear that it breeds.’ —W. H. Beveridge (1944)

‘Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work, and in that work does what he wants to do.’—R. G. Collingwood (1933)