What Makes New Work Different from More Work?

Blueprint Co-Director David Autor, Caroline Chin, Anna Salomons, and Bryan Seegmiller study the role of expertise in new work—novel occupational roles that emerge as technological and economic conditions evolve—using newly available 1940 and 1950 Census Complete Count files and confidential American Community Survey data from 2011–2023. They show that new work is systematically distinct from simply more work in existing occupations in four respects