TIMELINE OF EVOLUTION OF WORK

TIMELINE Of evolution of work

Prehistory

In the earliest stages of human civilization, work was confined to simple tasks involving the most basic of human needs: food, childcare, and shelter.

The Ancient world

Town specialization of labor brought the emergence of potters, weavers, metalworkers, scribes, lawyers, and physicians.

TIMELINE Of Evolution of work

1970s

1950s

1990s

Employees increasingly had doubts about the value of long-term company loyalty and started putting their own needs and interests above their employers'.

In 1975, the U.S. economy went bust, creating job insecurity for the first time in decades..

The 1950s were a transformative time.

Women had surged into the workforce during World War II.

1980s

1960s

What you might have seen on the hit show Mad Men isn’t too far off from what office life was like in the 1960s.

The 1980s began with two recessions in three years and finished the decade with 19 million more jobs.

TIMELINE of evolution of work

2010s

Globalization and the loss of many retail jobs in the recession resulted in a shift in the American economy from manufacturing to services, specifically in healthcare and social assistance.

2000s

2020s

Just as technology had reduced the number of jobs on factory floors, it also meant fewer administrative assistants, bank tellers, and retail workers.

The world of work has changed so quickly in recent decades and the rate of change shows no signs of slowing down. Reading the trends of the past decades is telling.