More recent statistics show that the relative diminution of employment in textile industries traceable since 1851, became a positive diminution after 1871, though the statistics of 1891 indicate a certain recovery.
| 1841 | 618,509[180] |
| 1851 | 603,800 |
| 1861 | 934,500 |
| 1871 | 970,000 |
| 1881 | 962,000 |
| 1891 | 1,016,100[181] |
The significance of these figures in relation to the demand for labour receives further emphasis when the large and rapid displacement of male by female labour is taken into account. In the dress trades it may be observed that the absolute increase which every census, save that of 1871, discloses, is absorbed by the tailoring and millinery branches, where machinery plays a relatively unimportant part, and that in the boot and shoe trade, where there has been a greatly increased application of machinery, there has been not only a proportionate but an absolute fall-off of employment in the twenty years following 1861, though the 1891 census again brings up the absolute numbers of the boot and shoe trade to a little above the level of 1851.[182]
The branches of manufacture which show a large increase in the proportion of employment they give in 1891 as compared with 1861 are machinery and tools, printing and bookbinding, wood furniture and carriages, fuel, gas, chemicals, and unspecified trades (chiefly connected with machinery). Machinery and tools alone, among the larger manufactures, yield a large proportionate increase of employment, amounting, according to the Census Report, to 27.7 per cent. between 1881 and 1891, though dealers are included in this estimate as well as makers.
From these facts two conclusions may be drawn regarding the direct effects of machinery. First, so far as the aggregate of manufactures is concerned, the net result of the increased use of machinery has not been to offer an increased demand for labour in these industries commensurate with the growth of the working population. Second, an increased proportion of the manufacturing population is employed either in those branches of the large industries where machinery is least used, or in the smaller manufactures which are either subsidiary to the large industries, or are engaged in providing miscellaneous comforts and luxuries.
§ 3. When we turn from manufactures to other employments, we perceive that while mining and building employ an increasing proportion of the working classes since 1851, agriculture offers a rapidly diminishing employment, descending from 20.9 per cent. in 1851 to 11.5 per cent. in 1881, and 9.9 in 1891.[183]
It is, however, to the transport trades, to the distributing or "dealing" trades, and to industrial service that we must look for the notable increase of employment. All of these departments have grown far faster than the population since 1841.
| Transport. | Dealing. | Industrial Service. | |
| 1841 | 2.1 | 5.3 | 5.4 |
| 1851 | 4.1 | 6.5 | 4.5 |
| 1861 | 4.6 | 7.1 | 4.0 |
| 1871 | 4.9 | 7.8 | 6.0 |
| 1881 | 5.6 | 7.8 | 6.7 |
The statistics of 1891 still further emphasise this movement. The transport services show an enormous rise upon 1881, yielding a proportionate employment of 7.4 per cent. The dealing classes show likewise a great increase. Merchants and agents increase from 285,138 to 363,037, dealers in money are about 30 per cent. more numerous, while insurance employs more than double the number employed in 1881, and six times the number of 1871. Taking drapers and mercers as indicative of the dealing class in a staple trade, we find an increase from 82,362 to 107,018, or 29.9 per cent. The numbers of those employed in thirteen representative retail trades have increased between 1881 and 1891 by not less than 27.9 per cent.
