How many jobs were created during the Industrial Revolution?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 28 Mar 2005 19:59 PST

cutter2-ga,

Between the 1851 and the 1901 census in Britain, the portion of the
labor force i agriculture fell precipitously, from 22% in 1851 to only
9% in 1901.

Manufacturing employment -- already very substantial in the 1850's --
increased in the same period from 3.6 million factory workers in 1851
to 5.1 million in 1901.

So, the late industrial revolution in Britain can be said to have
created about one and a hlf million factory jobs.  But at the same
time, an awful lot of farming jobs disappeared.

The biggest change, though, was in the service sector (from 2.3 to 6.5
million) -- the rise of the working class and entrepeneur led to a
rise in workers providing transportation, household help, educational,
financial and other services.

Prior to the 1850's, there don't appear to be reliable data that
detail the types of occupations held.

Does the above information meet your needs?  If not, what other sorts
of information would be useful to you?

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by cutter2-ga on 28 Mar 2005 21:03 PST

Thank you for the information. 

To clarify, I would like to be able to say something like: "three
times as many jobs were created worldwide as a result of the 'internet
revolution' as were created during the entire industrial revolution".

So, it is important to know what the "generally accepted academic
consensus" is for the number of jobs created as a result of the
industrial revolution to use as a comparison.

Perhaps something like, "According to professor Johnson, the world
renown expert, the industrial revolution led to the creation of 3
million new jobs primarily in western Europe and the US." or something
like that.

Is there such an expert, or such a consensus that is commonly referred
to as the "job creation" benefit of the industrial revolution?

thanks,

Cutter2

surely the best way to do that, would be to calulate the amount of
people who lived in Britain, or America in the 1750s, and what
percentage were invloved in agriculture, and industry at that time. I
calculate, that the industrial revolution saw almost everybody
involved in work in 1900, involved, in industry, whereas only a low
percentage of the population were involved in it, in 1750. Surely as
of the growth of industry the amount of people, involved in inddutrial
jobs, became, almost everybody. Surely also teh percentage of people
involved in industry would be very rough, as some jobs, would be a bit
industrial and some not. Also the fact that some people lost their
jobs, via new ways, does not effect the statistic. So I feel it would
be ok, to say that 5.1million factory workers, had been created by
1900, Yes many jobs had appeared and dissapeared but that is too
difficult to calulate. But in a way every job in 1900, had been
insutrialised, from shop keepers, who know had industriakl produced
materials, that if they did not have, they would be killed off by
their competitorsm too farm workers, who know used industrially made
plows.