In the early 1900s, telephone operation was among the most common jobs for American women, and telephone operators were ubiquitous. Between 1920 and 1940, AT&T undertook one of the largest automation investments in modern history, replacing operators with mechanical switching technology in over half of the U.S. telephone network. Using variation across U.S. cities in the timing of adoption, we study how this wave of automation affected the labor market for young women. Although automation eliminated most of these jobs, it did not reduce future cohorts’ overall employment: the decline in operators was counteracted by employment growth in middle-skill clerical jobs and lower-skill service jobs, including in new categories of work. Using a new genealogy-based census-linking method, we show that incumbent telephone operators were most impacted, and a decade later more likely to be in lower-paying occupations or no longer working.

中文翻译：

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响应自动化的召唤：劳动力市场如何适应机械化电话操作

1900年代初，电话接线员是美国女性最常见的工作之一，电话接线员无处不在。1920 年至 1940 年间，AT&T 进行了现代历史上最大的自动化投资之一，在美国一半以上的电话网络中用机械交换技术取代了接线员。利用美国各城市收养时间的差异，我们研究了这一波自动化浪潮如何影响年轻女性的劳动力市场。尽管自动化消除了其中大部分工作，但它并没有减少未来群体的整体就业：操作员的减少被中等技能文书工作和低技能服务工作（包括新工作类别）的就业增长所抵消。使用一种新的基于谱系的人口普查链接方法，我们发现现有的电话接线员受到的影响最大，十年后更有可能从事低薪职业或不再工作。