Labour Research February 2019

Equality news

Women’s jobs hit most by automation and austerity


Almost 400,000 jobs held by women in the public sector, banking and retail have been lost since 2011, according to research from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).


A field guide to the future of work was undertaken by the RSA’s Future Work Centre, established following RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor’s employment review for prime minister Theresa May. It finds that women have borne the brunt of jobs “lost” to automation and austerity in the last decade while also missing out on the best-paid new jobs.


Women account for 112% of job losses among teaching assistants (this is more than 100% due to an increase in male teaching assistants), 81% among social service managers and directors, and 74% among administrative occupations in central government.


They have also lost out in private sector roles, particularly as retail cashiers, personal assistants, hairdressers and banking clerks, according to the report.


The fastest-shrinking occupations include retail cashiers and checkout operators (down by 25% or 59,000); bank and post office clerks (down by 26% or 39,000); and administrative occupations in central government (down by 35% or 89,000).


Benedict Dellot, head of the Future Work Centre, said: “The challenge for government, employers and educators is to make sure the 2020s play out differently to the 2010s, so that everyone ... shares in the spoils of new technology.”

https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/rsa_field-guide-future-work.pdf