§ Mr. Harveyasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether any assessment has been made by his Department of the number of jobs, actual and potential, that have been displaced since 1970 through the introduction of new technology both in the white-collar field and the blue-collar field; and whether there are any projections for the future.
§ Mr. GummerThe Department has not itself made any assessment of the number of jobs displaced through the introduction of new technology. Any estimates would in any case be subject to considerable uncertainty because of the difficulty of identifying the separate effects of technological change, especially in a period of rapidly changing employment levels. While some jobs will inevitably be lost in both blue and white collar occupations as a result of the introduction of new technology, other jobs, both blue and white collar, will be gained. Indeed, the adoption of new technology can lead to gains in competitiveness allowing new product markets to be captured which offers the prospect of greater wealth and the possibility of increased employment opportunities in the economy as a whole.