How technology has changed the world of work
From the light bulb to bitcoin, productivity has increased almost 30 fold since 1760. Image: REUTERS/Aly Song
Humanity is always moving forward with innovation after innovation improving global quality of life.
The last 150 years have seen the most remarkable advancement of technology in history. Electric lighting, cars, plastic, the telephone, and television are all less than 150 years old, while newer innovations such as the internet have spurred ever more rapid societal development.
Technological advances have boosted productivity by allowing workers to get more done in a day. This helps to increase output and boosts economic growth.
In its recent Equity Gilt Study, which is a massive annual report by Barclays chronicling the bank's thoughts on important topics in finance and economics, the bank focused heavily on new technologies and particularly on cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence.
Included in the report was a breakdown of how productivity and output have developed over the course of the last century and a half, crossed with the major innovations that have come in that time.
Barclays measured total output per hour across both the UK and the USA from 1760 onward, using an index where that year is considered to be 100. Productivity in 2018 is around 3,000 on this index.
You can see the chart showing the growth in productivity below, as well as an index of the innovations:
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Stay up to date:
Technological Transformation
The Agenda Weekly
A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.
More on Emerging TechnologiesSee all
Hope French and Michael Atkinson
November 7, 2024