Andrew G Haldane: Labour’s share Speech by Mr Andrew G Haldane, Executive Director and Chief Economist of the Bank of England, at the Trades Union Congress, London, 12 November 2015. *  *  *  The views are not necessarily those of the Bank of England or the Monetary Policy Committee. I would like to thank William Abel, Simon Caunt, Jeremy Franklin, Edward Hall, Philip King, Priya Gupta, Alex Mitchell, Rachana Shanbhogue, Bradley Speigner and Tom Smith for their help in preparing the text. I would also like to thank James Bell, Oliver Burrows, Melissa Davey, Gareth Ramsay, Stephen Seawright and Sebastian Walsh for their comments and contributions. General Secretary. It is a great privilege for me to be invited to speak to you. In the early nineteenth century, the unions were struggling to cope with the on-going impact of the Industrial Revolution on jobs and wages. They came together in the 1860s to present a united front and face down the threat of legislation to curtail workers’ rights. The TUC was born. The first meeting of Congress, in 1868, debated wage inequalities, workers’ hours, technical education and threats to jobs and workers’ rights (London Metropolitan University (2015)). Almost 150 years on, Congress today represents more than 5.8 million workers across all sectors and regions of the UK. The 147th Congress was recently held in Brighton. The topics it debated may have a familiar ring: wage inequalities, workers’ hours, technical education and threats to jobs and workers’ rights.
Source: Frey and Osborne (2013); Bank calculations. Notes: The UK probability of automation figures are based on estimates in Frey and Osborne (2013) matched against UK occupations.