8  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  8  I noted above that changes in the world of work have very possibly changed the pricing power of labour and workers’ appetite for risk (i.e. job insecurity). This is in itself a large area of current debate and I do not want here to go into these in great detail. 18  Some of these important changes in the structure of the labour market, such as the rise in self-employment and decline in union membership, predated the financial crisis. Others, like the rise in temporary work and zero hours contracts, are more recent. Technology – and the rise of the gig economy – has further increased what my colleague Andy Haldane has called the ‘divisibility’ of labour. The impact of the financial crisis and subsequent recession itself may also have changed workers appetite for risk. Anecdotally this is certainly true; I have lost count of the number times in the last four years, when the discussion on regional visits has turned to pressure for pay increases that I have heard the explanation that workers were “happy just having a job”. This may well be more than anecdote. There is literature on the Great Depression that identifies the lifetime effects on the so called ‘depression babies’ and their attitude to risk.
There are experts to discuss these topics in this Forum and let me not pre-empt them. I hope the deliberations today will bring such issues into light and that there will be a meaningful discussion. I wish the seminar a success. 2  BIS Review 64/2007