In the 19th century Britain was the most powerful industrial nation with a mighty (possente) economy based on coal (carbone), iron (ferro), steel (acciaio) and heavy industry (industria pesante).

In the 20th century Britain had lost (aveva perso) its leadership (comando) to US growing economic power ( a favore del crescente potere economico degli USA) . After the Second World War much of Britain's industries - mining (industria estrattiva), steel manufacturing (produzione dell'acciaio) and power supplies ( industrie elettriche)- were nationalized.

During the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher's government started a period of liberal economics with the privatization of most state-owned enterprises (imprese possedute dallo stato). The social costs of privatization were extremely high: about (circa) 140 mines (miniere) were closed and hundreds of thousands (centinaia di migliaia) of jobs (posti di lavoro) were lost.

In the early 2000s the UK experienced growth (crescita) combined with low inflation (inflazione) and falling unemployment (calo della disoccupazione), even if the number of jobs created did not equal the number of jobs lost.

The recent economic downturn (recessione economica) has had a tremendous impact on the labour market (mercato del lavoro). The only group that seems unscathed (incolume) is the highly skilled workers ( gli operai altamente specializzati). Youth (i giovani) and low skilled workers ( operai non specializzati) have been particularly hit (colpiti)

Today the majority of Britons are employed in service industries (industria dei servizi) : the information technology (IT) sector , tourism, light engineering, telecommunications, finance, and other services.