Unemployment in the british Industrial revolution?

Question

focusing on 1800-1830.

did the level of unemplaoyment rise or fall?
roughly by how much?
what effect did this have on the standard of living?

Answers to any of the above much appreiated

Answer 1

Briefly, the British Industrial Revolution created unemployment.

Before it, most people were self-sufficient. They grew their own food, and therefore could not exist unless employed. There were "unemployed" people only if you mean the elites, who survived by the sweat of other men's (and women's and children's) brows.

Beacuse of the revolution of coal-fired steam engines and the concentration of labor in cities, there emerged a class of unemployed people. These were the people whose labor was replaced by new machinery. The economy of England did not at the time have the capacity to absorb these people in other economic pursuits, nor did they have the ability, generally, to see many other opportunities.

There was much thought at the time about population resources, most famoust of which were probably Thomas Malthus' Principle of Population and David Ricardo's Iron Law of Wages (see the Fordham U website below).

Clark Nardinelli (on econlib.org) at the US FDA has a nice discussion abotu working conditions, unemployment and industrialization in England, roughly 1750-1850. He doesn't lean hard in any direction, but it seems likely from his treatment that unemployment was a growing concern in the period of your interest.

Measurement of population was in its infancy at the time, and so reliable statistics on unemployment are probably a fantasy. (I learned in reading for this that England's first population census took place in 1801.)

Nardinelli also addresses differing ideas about standards of living. Life expectancy increased for people in industrializing societies overall, but they experienced overcrowding, alienation (an emotional cost), pollution and its health effects, and - at least in the case of England - culinary impoverishment.

I think that the effects of the Industrial Revolution on standards of living have a lot to do with the eye of the beholder. How happy would you be with clean air and no car? A pleasant lifestyle and fewer medicines? I don't have good answers for these, myself.

Thanks for an interesting question. Oh, and read the linked articles at the Fordham site. Paul Halsall is my hero.

Answer 2

I'm not an expert on this . . . but as far as i know there was a peasant migration to urban areas, and good employment. However, due to overpopulation in the [now] cities, living standards were appalling, and there were no trade unions to help. This was mainly due to overcrowding - the cities were not designed to house so many people, and there was general poverty - spread of disease etc.