Skill, Task Discretion and New Technology. Trends in Britain 1986-2001

Drawing upon evidence from a series of national surveys of the British workforce, the paper assesses the long-standing debates about trends in skills and task discretion, and their relationship to changes in technology. It reveals a significant rise in skill levels over the period, with little evidence of increased workforce polarisation. In sharp contrast, task discretion declined for most categories of employee and particularly sharply for professionals, personal service and sales employees and those in elementary occupations. New computer-based technologies were strongly associated with higher skills, but did not significantly influence task discretion.