There are also other jobs that simply are not being done any more in most cases - often public service type jobs like on-site park keepers and lavatory attendants. Yes, we do sort of still have them driving round in vans, but we used to have one per park/lavatory who was there all the time - a higher number. It's a continuing desire to pay less tax that causes the end of those jobs through Council cost cutting.
I would suggest any such desire is long way down the list of reasons for the end of those jobs. More relevant reasons, in no particular order, would be:
* Councils nowadays are responsible for a much wider range of services and have more important priorities to fund. Increasing council budgets would not bring those jobs back because the extra resources could always be used to provide other new services that prioritisied more.
* Modern labour costs make such roles uneconomic - minimum wage, taxes, pensions, working time directive, H&S requirements, cost of accommodation, willingness to perform such roles. You simply couldn't employ a park-keeper or lavatory attendant in the way they were once were.
* Demand for the services is not what it was. Fewer people use public toilets because there are more alternatives of an acceptable standard available now. Promenading in grand public parks was once a core leisure activity but today other leisure options are preferred and parks are more likely to be simple utilitarian spaces used by dog walkers, joggers, etc so no need to maintain complex floral displays.
* Technology has made the remaining staff much more productive. Hand dryers replacing the need to deal with paper towels, modern materials requiring less maintenance and modern cleaning products making toilets each to clean. Self-propelled lawnmowers that allow an individual to twice the area area in the half time.
* Roles are increasingly specialised. Where once a park-keeper might have been responsible for dealing with fallen trees in his park, the council engages a tree surgeon on a case-by-case basis. Because the tree surgeon specialises in trees, it is economic for him to purchase specialised equipment, develop specialised techniques and employ staff to cope with the additional opportunities opened up by specialising like this.
The one thing all those reasons have in common is progress. Different types of progress certainly but progress all the same. You will find that for every park-keeper and lavatory attendant displaced, more jobs have been created in the wider economy through the allocation of the displaced labour to more productive tasks: the social care worker, the home bathroom fitter, the gym receptionist, the supplier to lawnmower manufacturer, the child care provider that looks after their children to name a few jobs in the modern economy.
