New technologies swept through Britain during the Second Industrial Revolution, destroying old jobs and creating new ones. We know little about how workers reallocated. Using 170 million full-count British census observations (1851-1911), I construct new task-level data on occupation and investigate English bootmaking as it mechanized. 153,000 artisanal jobs disappeared as skills became obsolete; 140,000 specialized jobs emerged. Incumbent artisans did not take the new jobs, nor were they displaced. Instead, entry collapsed-young men stopped entering the old trade. New jobs went primarily to young workers, though not in the same locations. Young cohorts absorbed the adjustment.

Here is the full article by Hillary Vipond, via someone (now forgotten) on Twitter.