likes of robert owen and sir titus salt to improve conditions inside mills. by the end of the second industrial revolution, spurred by a more organised labour force, the government provided welfare for its population through workplace injury compensations, basic pensions and unemployment provisions. the interwar years ushered in universal healthcare, unemployment insurance and pensions. by the dawn of the 3rd revolution, individual enterprise and privatisation were ascendant. reform of social services – to help create a society of equal opportunity – followed, supported by increased public spending for maternity and child benefits, early years education, and provisions for pensioners. the number of friendly societies rose to 27, 000 by the end of the 1800s and trade union membership quadrupled from 2 million in 1889 to 8. 3 million by 1920. spurred by industrial unrest, the state introduced the precursor to the minimum wage in the first decade of the 1900s. unionism has been in decline since the 1970s, with membership dipping below six million in 2012 for the first time since the 1940s. recent work indicates that trade unions in the us played an important role in supporting the wages of lower - skilled workers during the years of the 3rd industrial revolution, thereby helping to limit increases in inequality over this period. see farber, h s, herbst, d, kuziemko, i and naidu, s ( 2018 ), ‘ unions and inequality over the twentieth century : new evidence from survey data ’, nber working paper no. 24587. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches so building on the past, what could be done this time? first, everyone can contribute to a better understanding of the new skills that will be required. that includes granular reviews by firms of the mismatches between their current talent pool and future needs ; estimates by the creators of general purpose technologies of the breadth of their potential applications ; and reporting by public institutions on the aggregate pace of automation and trends in the labour market. the rate - limiting factor of technology adoption is often the skill - set of existing employees. for that reason alone, business has an enormous interest in effective workforce training. and the providers of generalpurpose technologies have a responsibility to explore how they can develop their products in ways that maximise job - creation or broader social benefits. for example, deepmind established an ethics and society research unit to help technologists put ethics into practice, and to help society anticipate and direct the

the future of work speech given by mark carney, governor of the bank of england 2018 whitaker lecture, central bank of ireland 14 september 2018 i am grateful to clare macallan and jennifer nemeth for their assistance in preparing these remarks. i would also like to thank will abel, andy haldane, carsten jung, rana sajedi and greg thwaites for the background research and analysis they conducted. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches it is a pleasure to deliver this lecture in honour of tk whitaker. whitaker ’ s career in public policy spanned a period of profound structural change in the irish economy. in 1956, when he became secretary of the department for finance, the irish economy was isolated and uncompetitive. growth in output per capita was lagging the rest of europe and the steady tide of emigration was gradually shrinking the population. by the time whitaker ’ s career drew to a close, the celtic tiger was roaring : ireland had caught up with even the most prosperous nations in the eu, gdp growth was averaging over 5 %, and the population had increased by two - thirds as emigration switched to immigration. the catalyst for this transformation was opening up to foreign trade and investment. beginning with the 1958 report economic development, whitaker strongly advocated replacing the old strategy of self - sufficiency with a new one of export - led growth, which led in time to ireland joining the eu. for many, this is the greatest long - term consequence of his work. but as students of economic history know ( and policymakers learn at their cost ), without the right institutions, structural changes – whether large changes to trading relationships or technological revolutions – can be painful. whitaker recognised that “ readiness to adapt to changing conditions is a sine qua non for economic success ” and that adaptability required a series of changes to ireland ’ s institutions. major reforms to education were essential to match the skills of the irish workforce to the potential jobs that increased inward investment could bring. a 1964 report on manpower policy, which whitaker oversaw as chair, advocated greater investment in the stem subjects, readying a generation for the it revolution. more broadly, ireland repeatedly increased standards of education, beginning with the introduction of universal secondary schooling in 1967, resulting in levels of educational attainment today that exceed the oecd average. whitaker also advocated reforms of labour market institutions – to tackle restrictive work practices and ensure pay was more closely linked to productivity