Technological unemployment is the loss of jobs due to technological change. It is a key type of structural unemployment. Technological change typically includes the introduction of labour-saving "mech
A pharmacy robot delivering to a nurses' station at San Jose's Good Samaritan Hospital in the United States in 2008: In the 21st century, robots are beginning to perform roles not just in manufacturing but also in the service sector – in healthcare, for example.
Roman Emperor Vespasian, who refused a low-cost method of transport of heavy goods that would put laborers out of work
Elizabeth I, who refused to patent a knitting machine invented by William Lee, saying "Consider thou what the invention could do to my poor subjects. It would assuredly bring them to ruin by depriving them of employment, thus making them beggars."
Critics of the view that innovation causes lasting unemployment argue that technology is used by workers and does not replace them on a large scale.
The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who protested the usage of certain types of automated machinery owing to their concerns over worker pay, labour savings,
Technological unemployment
…processes are minimized. Historical examples include artisan weavers losing work due to the introduction of mechanized looms, leading to protests by the Luddites. A contemporary example of technological unemployment is the displacement of retail cashiers by self-service tills and cashierless stores. Technological…
The Leader of the Luddites, 1812. Hand-coloured etching