The Industrial Age and Employment

　　The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people's work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of the changes in work patterns which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a daunting thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows, has not meant economic freedom.

　　Employment became widespread when the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by depriving them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and removed work from people's homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people commuted longer distances to their places of employment until, eventually, many people's work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived.

　　Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. In pre-industrial times, men and women had shared the productive work of the household and village community. Now it became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and families to his wife. Tax and benefit regulations still assume this norm today, and restrict more flexible sharing of work roles between the sexes.

　　It was not only women whose work status suffered. As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old people were excluded-a problem now, as more teenagers become frustrated at school and more retired people want to live active lives.

　　All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some effort and resources away from the idealist goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without full-time jobs.

　　1. The established work patterns may be changed with the closing of the industrial age.

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　2. Universal employment has brought about economic freedom.

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　3. Many people depended on the land for a living before the 17th century.

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　4. Improved transport enabled people to travel longer distances to their work places.

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　5. Employed women of equal qualifications are paid less than men.

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　6. A large number of teenagers will quit school next year.

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　7. Now is the time to handle the issue of employment in a practical manner.

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

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